


the whole world at your fingertips

by elysium (lawlietslullaby), lawlietslullaby



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Aromantic Pidge, Autistic Keith (Voltron), F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, Pining, Shiro has a prosthetic arm, Slow Burn, Trans Girl Pidge, also i am autistic, hunk is poly and has two beautiful gfs!, keith and lance aren't together yet, keith meets the gang, keith works at an ice cream shop, when i say slow burn im not fucking around this shit builds GRADUALLY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 20:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7860346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawlietslullaby/pseuds/elysium, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawlietslullaby/pseuds/lawlietslullaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in college, keith makes a lot of great new friends including lance, a sweet guy with a shitty boyfriend.</p><p>or</p><p>keith is an autistic teen and shiro is his super helpful dadbrotherpersonfriend, and keith navigates through college, friendship, and love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. first day

If it wasn’t for Shiro’s gentle insistence, Keith wouldn’t get out of bed most days. His bed was sinfully comfortable and his motivation was nonexistent. It would be so easy to lay here forever, wasting away.

Except today was not just any day. It was his first day of college, and Keith had never felt such a mix of excitement and dread. If it was anything like high school, it wasn’t worth waking up for, but he heard Shiro knocking on his door and knew he had to get up, at the very least so he could unlock the door and let him in.

“Hey, buddy.” Shiro greeted, already showered, dressed, and with minty breath. “Good morning!” and it was ungodly. It was barely 6:30 am. The sun hadn’t even woken up yet.

“Are you excited for your first day?” he asked, sitting on Keith’s bed. Keith’s instinct was to say "No, I’d rather sleep instead" but Shiro was so hopeful that he couldn’t bring himself to do it. There were a few things Keith wasn’t willing to do; hug strangers, eat ranch dressing, but most of all disappoint Shiro. 

“Yeah…” he trailed off, looking uncertain.

“But you’re nervous too.” Shiro finished for him. Keith nodded, swallowing hard.

“Yeah.” he breathed. “Yeah, that’s it.” Shiro got up and walked over to him, and Keith still had morning breath and dirty hair and his pajamas on, but Shiro put an arm around him in something like a hug.

“If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great." Shiro said, and Keith snorted.

“Stop quoting Matt’s dad when I’m having a hard time,” he laughed, and Shiro smiled back at him.

“Maybe I should...Good quote though, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so.” Shiro patted his back.

“Okay, cadet.” It was a nickname. “Go get ready for your first day.” He flashed Keith a smile that couldn’t accurately be described as anything but inspirational, and that made Keith cringe a little.

“Shower, Keith!” Shiro said urgently but still with a smile on his face.

“I know, I know.”

Keith didn’t put much thought into how he looked. He just couldn’t really bring himself to care. He was lucky that he was beautiful naturally (Shiro’s mother’s words, not his), or else he’d just look like a tired mop. Shiro’s dad said he’d grow out of it, get tired of doing the bare minimum to maintain his appearance. He said this with a long suffering sigh, but his eyes were smiling. There was something about Keith that made him so lovable in spite of his sharp tongue and his blank face.

And yet, Shiro had been feeling recently that he was lovable because of those things, and not in spite of them at all. 

When he comes out of the shower his hair is sopping wet, he’s getting water everywhere. and Shiro has managed to arrange a wearable outfit from the clothing pile that is where Keith puts his laundry. He’s not used to having his own space yet because he just moved in and it’s pretty clear that Shiro is gonna have to sit down with him sometime and have a long chat about how to own an apartment and not destroy it or set it on fire. Or even worse, how to not die in a mountain of clothes. Keith is drying his hair and Shiro is looking at Keith’s class schedule, printed out with care from the college website. Shiro isn’t Keith’s brother, but he’s the closest thing he’s got, and dammit if he’s gonna let Keith get lost on the first day. He has a responsibility to him, and to his mom. He remembered how his mother had yelled at him the previous night on the phone.

“Don’t you dare lose him, Takashi. That boy is like a second son to me.” Shiro gulped. “if I find out you let him lose his way on campus...” She paused, letting the fear fill her son’s veins. “There will be hell to pay.” Shiro was so scared that he said “Yes,ma’am” instead of “Yes, mom” and the memory jolted him into reality.

“Off we go, then.” he said, pushing a now dressed Keith into the hall and shutting the door behind him.

“What about my backpack…” Keith said and Shiro turned around, alarmed.

“Oh, shit.” He ran back into the apartment and grabbed it in all its prepacked glory. Keith was always a last minute sort of person, so he’d gotten good at setting his stuff up ahead of time. He was especially good at this when fear and dread were consuming him and he had nothing else to do but stuff shit in a bag. In his mind, the more shit he stuffed in the bag, the better chance he had of not dying on his first day. So the bag was really heavy, and Keith wasn’t sure he needed half of the stuff he’d put in there, but he guessed he’d find out.

“Okay, now we’re ready,” Shiro said, coming back out of Keith’s apartment with a backpack that could’ve easily weighed 80 pounds, and Keith laughed too loud in the dusty silence of the apartment complex.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s a bunch of bullshit! Aliens aren’t even real!” Lance said, and his flailing hands almost knocked over Hunk’s iced coffee.

“Watch the coffee, bro!” Hunk said, voice high pitched due to annoyance. “You think a college student can just afford to spill $2.47? That’s like half of my monthly allowance.” he whined. Pidge sipped her water, glasses glinting in the sunlight.

“You won’t be saying that when they abduct you from your dorm tonight, Lance. Aliens don’t keep spare moisturizer or fluffy towels around, either. Your skin will flake off and you will die,” Pidge said, and even Hunk shivered. Well, not even Hunk. It wasn’t a surprise that he shivered. He was scared of most things. 

“Not cool, man. I don’t need to have nightmares on my first day here. It’s bad enough that I can’t even call my mom until she puts minutes on my phone later.”

“Whatever, Pidge.” Lance said, as though he wasn’t afraid, before turning to Hunk and whispering “Do you think that’s true?”, sounding more than a little scared, to which Hunk responded just as anxiously “I don’t know, man! But i don’t wanna find out.” Pidge continued to sip her drink, feeling quite pleased with herself.

“For someone who is so naturally worried, you sure drink a lot of caffeinated beverages, Hunk.” came Shiro’s voice from a few feet away.

“I’m hoping that one day I’ll drink so much caffeine that it’ll like, cancel out my nervousness or something. I don’t know. I’m not a biology major.” he shrugged noncommittally. “But also, hey! It’s been a while, huh Shiro? It’s good to see you again!” he got up and went over to Shiro so he could squeeze him in a life threatening, bone crushing embrace. Lance and Pidge noticed Shiro first, then Shiro’s extreme suffering, and came over as well.

“Shiro! We haven’t seen you since June!” Pidge said brightly. “We missed you down at the restaurant.” 

“Wait, Shiro. Are you aware that there’s a guy behind you? Like uncomfortably close to your neck. Like he’s right-” 

“Oh! Hey everyone. This is Keith.” he gestured to the boy beside him. He looked decidedly uninterested in everything. His dark hair was rather long, but messy in a casual, uncaring way. It was vaguely stylish. Not a very current haircut. but what did Pidge know? Besides, Lance still owned a pair of Heely’s and Hunk wore a narutoesque headband most of the time. 

“Hey!” Hunk greeted enthusiastically. “Are you friends with Shiro?” he asked, and his eagerness to get to know Keith made Shiro smile.

“Yeah,” Keith said. it was a bland answer, but it was all he could come up with. It was a little intimidating, standing in front of all these people who were apparently already close with Shiro. He was probably disappointing to them. Shiro gave him a look. specifically it was the can you maybe be a little friendlier look, one of the looks Keith hated the most. He frowned a little.

“Yeah, Keith and I have known each other for a while now.” Shiro said. “He’s my best friend.” At this, Lance gawked. He knew he wasn’t Shiro’s best friend, but he figured he was pretty damn close to it. Now this guy had shown up, barely saying a word and he’s supposed to be Shiro’s best friend? Lance was not happy. Keith looked surprised at Shiro’s answer, too. 

“I’m Pidge! I’m double majoring in fear mongering and conspiracy theories.” She put her hand out so that Keith could shake it, but Keith pretended not to notice it. He wasn’t big on touching people he had just met, or anyone at all really.

“I’m...pretty sure those aren’t actual majors but it’s nice to meet you, Pidge. I’m undecided right now.” he said sheepishly. Shiro told him lots of people couldn’t decide right away, and that it was nothing to be ashamed of.

Nothing to be ashamed of. He sure said that to Keith a lot.

“Oh, Keith! This is Pidge. She’s Matt’s younger sister,” a look of realization washed over Keith’s face.

“Oh! I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection. You two look so much alike.” Keith said, and Pidge looked excited.

“You know Matt?”

“Yeah. I met him...two years ago? We’re not super close, but I know him. He’s a nice guy. really passionate. A good cook, too,” and okay, that had sure given Keith some Cool Points in Pidge’s book. She loved her brother and she loved people who loved her brother, too.

“I’m Hunk! I’m a space engineering major.” Hunk said, not bothering to put his hand out after seeing Keith decline Pidge’s. It was okay. He wasn’t offended. 

“That’s cool. Shiro loves space, too.” Keith said. Maybe it was embarrassing to relate everything back to Shiro, but he didn’t have much else to go off of. 

“I know! It’s so fascinating. I could talk about space forever but...if you know Shiro you probably get enough of that already.” he said, laughing good naturedly, and it made Keith smile too.  
“I’m Lance,” said a tan boy who looked…not the happiest to see Keith. Keith didn’t think he’d fucked up (yet) so he was hoping that was just what Lance’s face looked like. Keith had been told (by many, many people) that he looked angry and disappointed all the time, even when he felt fine. Maybe Lance had the same problem. “I’m undecided, too. There’s like a million options- How are we supposed to know what we want to do already? Hunk is an anomaly, a miracle-”

“Or,” Hunk interrupted. “I took the career test like the guidance counselor said to and then looked into the stuff beforehand. Seriously, Lance…”

“Ignore him,” Lance said, seeming to be in a better mood. “Nice to meet you, Keith. Maybe I can swing you a deal on a haircut from down the street-”

“Lance.” they all groaned at once, except for a confused looking Keith and a rather accomplished feeling Lance.

“Is- Is something wrong with my hair?” Keith said to Shiro, who shook his head.

“No, your hair is fine. Suits you. Lance just likes to mess around a bit.”

“One day someone is gonna kick his ass.” Pidge sighed, like it couldn’t be helped. “I’ve tried to train him over the years, but-”

“I’m not a dog-” Lance interjected, sounding offended. Keith couldn’t tell if he genuinely felt hurt or not.

“Alas, it has not proven successful.” Pidge finished. Keith was pretty sure he liked her, or at least he could relate to her the most. Plus, she was part of Matt’s family, so she couldn’t be too bad.

“Oh shit, it’s like...ten minutes until first class! We’re all gonna be late! And then, we’re gonna flunk out of college! My mom is gonna be so mad at me!” Hunk panicked, as everyone stared at him with vague disappointment.

“Hunk, you read your watch wrong. It’s twenty minutes until your first class starts. Your first class. We don’t all have the same schedule, you big baby.” Pidge said, but she was smiling.

“Oh. Well in that case…” 

“Hunk’s right, though.” Shiro spoke up. He had been watching pandemonium ensue with quiet fondness. “We should get going. Keith, who do you have first?” Keith looked at his schedule, squinting.

“I’ll be honest. I can’t read a thing this says. I think it says…” he turned the schedule so that it was almost upside down and squinted harder. “Haggar? Room 206?” 

“Oh! that’s right. Okay. Let me show you how to get there.” he said, and started to walk away, Keith trailing behind him.

“It was nice seeing you guys!” Shiro said, and then he elbowed Keith. 

“It was nice to meet you guys.” he said, much quieter than Shiro, and without looking back. Lance snorted.

“He’s a real social butterfly.” he remarked.

“Continuing your condescending analogy, maybe he’s just still in his cocoon, you know?” Hunk said. He always did try to see the best in everyone. Lance sighed

“Maybe.” he admitted. “Not everyone can be as naturally good at socializing as the great Lance McClain, I suppose.” he said, not at all sounding like a raging douchebag.

“Wow. I have known you for years and it never fails to astound me how much of a raging douchebag you are.” Pidge said, with zero remorse.

“I am totally not!” Lance squawked, clearly affronted.

“Funny,” Pidge said, taking a sip of her water. “Sounds like something a douchebag would say.”

“And i have to spend an entire school year here with you guys?” Hunk said, already mourning his decision to attend the same college as his friends. “I’m gonna get gray hairs. I’m too young for this guys! I’m too young!” Lance laughed at the tone of Hunk’s voice, and then remembered something.

“I wonder how Keith and Shiro know each other,” he wondered out loud.

“No idea,” said Hunk. “but Shiro seems really fond of him. It’s cute. Like he’s his bodyguard or something.”

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it turned out, Shiro didn’t know his way around the campus as well as he thought. With five minutes to spare, Keith found his first class.

“Do you even go here?” Keith joked, as they went past the classroom for the eighth time.

“Shut up,” Shiro said, trying not to laugh. “It’s my first day back from break. It’s not like i was thinking about the layout of this place during the summer.” he said. They were standing in front of the door and stopped for a second.

“Wow. Your first college class.” Shiro said. He looked anywhere but Keith and that made Keith suspicious. He cleared his throat, gaze on Shiro.

“Why won’t you look at me?”

“Uh. No reason.” A barely there sniffle.

“Are you crying?”

“No. I happened to get an eyelash in my eye the second we got here. It’s not like I’m proud of you or anything. It’s not like I’ve known you for years and seen you grow up before my very eyes and now you’re attending the same college as me.” his voice cracked. “What’s there to cry about?” Keith was giving him a half cautious half fond smile. It felt really good to hear someone say they were proud of him but he was also, regardless of the situation or who it involved, really fucking bad at comforting people. Shiro was well aware of this.

“Can I hug you this once? You can still say no but I just...I’m just really proud of you.” Keith considered it for a moment. He had put himself through hell in high school. It wasn’t that it was academically challenging. As far as grades went, he excelled with relative ease. Maybe a few hiccups in certain math courses. A few english quizzes with grades that weren’t outstanding. He had suffered in other ways. He’d stay up late doing homework and get up early to catch the bus. School was a sensory hell in its own right and some days (in senior year it was almost every day. His body protested. He’d had enough) he got migranes from the smells, the sounds, and the lighting of it all. Waking up in a bad overstimulated state and getting bumped into by other students, the sound of lockers banging as they were shut, the perfumes of girls as they left the locker room, all sprayed at once and converging into one big cloud of miasma. Keith hated perfume with a passion. 

He was lucky enough to not get passed around from place to place during high school, staying with a woman named Lindsay, her gross boyfriend, and their old dog. Keith mostly minded his own business and prayed they wouldn’t have anything to complain about that would result in a move. He wanted to stay where he was. He had fallen into a routine and he had Shiro. Shiro didn’t tell him, but sometimes he had nightmares where Keith was taken away in the middle of the night and brought to a horrible family and Shiro had no way of knowing what happened. He just kept saying just keep him ‘til he’s 18. Just let him stay here that long and then I can help him out.

Executive dysfunction hit him hard in the second half of senior year. He couldn’t do anything. Showers became a three times a week thing. A choice. He forgot to eat and when he was hungry he couldn’t tell because it misrepresented itself as sadness or being tired or lonely or his body just felt unforgivingly weak. He wore dirty laundry to school for far longer than he’d like to admit. Once or twice he wore the same underwear two or three days in a row and it was hard to care. He might not have made it, if not for Shiro. As long as Keith had known him, Shiro had been of great help. But it was that second half of senior year where Shiro really kept him afloat. He sent him reminders to eat and shower and most of all, to stim. 

“I know today sucked. I know you woke up and you already felt bad, but did you stim at all? What about the spinning ring? Maybe twist it a bit? I think that’d make you feel better.” When he was tired and drained as he had been senior year, it was easy to forget about things that he did for leisure. The spinning ring had been a wonderful present, a group effort from Shiro and his parents. It wasn’t particularly expensive, but they had all chipped in anyway. Shiro said that his parents wanted Keith to know they cared. Keith had forgotten he’d had it in the midst of constant sensory overload and the struggle to work through his endless exhaustion, but then he wore it to school and twisted it in when he was placed in overwhelming environments. 

It was with Shiro’s help that Keith was able to graduate. On graduation day, Shiro and his parents had cheered so loudly for Keith when his name was called that it might as well have been nine people. Keith couldn’t help but smile even as his face felt hot, and they raced down to meet him at the end as they hugged him (it was an exception). 

“You made it!” Shiro said, and he was so, so happy. “Oh my god, Keith. You made it.” Keith was holding his diploma in his hand and he thought to himself “I earned this”.

I really, really earned this.

“You can hug me. I’ll allow it.” he said, like it was such a privilege. Shiro knew better, and he smiled. As he came closer, Keith could see the wetness of his eyes, twinkling in the light. Tears filling his eyes but too stubborn to fall. Shiro’s embrace was nice. Familiar. The smell of him was enough to calm Keith’s last nerves before he entered the classroom, and Shiro said “Have a great first day!” and then he was off.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

His first teacher had been weird. She didn’t make people call her “Ms.” or “Mrs.”, just Haggar. She looked like a mall goth from 2007, and she sounded old. Keith had a weird feeling that if he misbehaved in her class she could punish him in supernatural ways. He didn’t really want to find out whether or not that was true. He was just glad to be out of her room and away from all the weird energy it held. The content had been surprisingly interesting though, and he was glad he had signed up for her class, even if it was a mandatory subject. As he exited, he wished Shiro could be there to help him find his next class and talk about his first one with him, but Shiro had his own classes, and Keith needed to be at least somewhat self sufficient, so he got lost on his own, like an adult. 

Until Hunk found him wandering aimlessly.

“Dude, are you lost?” he asked, and Keith was stubborn, but not stubborn enough to stay lost, so he nodded.

“Sort of. What tipped you off?” 

“You’re walking in a circle holding some kind of…” he grabbed a paper out of Keith’s hand to inspect it further. “Hastily drawn map of the campus? Yeah, that’s a pretty big clue.” he said, and Keith just blinked. Yeah, that wasn’t subtle. 

“Here,” hunk said. “I’ll walk you to your next class. You’re lucky you have a nice chunk of time in between classes. Otherwise, this would be a disaster. How’s your first day going?” He was nice, kept a light conversation going.

“It’s okay.” he said, and then got a feeling like it wasn’t appropriate to just end the conversation like that. “It’s...different i guess. Honestly I’m already tempted to just go home and sleep, but I liked my first class.” Hunk hummed thoughtfully.

“How about you?” he asked, turning the question on Hunk. If there was anything he liked about talking, it was how he could just take whatever question he’d been asked and ask the other person the same thing to further the conversation. What a life hack. Shiro had taught him that. or maybe Seinfeld reruns. The odds were about 50/50. 

“Well, I’m definitely nervous.” he laughed. “If you hadn’t already noticed I’m uh, pretty nervous just all the time. However! I’m really liking it here so far. It feels weird, being away from my family and everything-”

Family 

“And I can’t believe I’m already in college. Like, I was just in high school ya know? It’s surreal.” Keith nodded at that.

“I know exactly what you mean.” 

They showed up to his class at the right time because Keith had run out of words to say and Hunk hadn’t, but he seemed to be hitting a roadblock, like he was debating what was acceptable to say to someone who you’ve only met earlier that morning. Keith cleared his throat.

“Thanks for showing me how to get here, Hunk.” he said, and it was monotone, but he hoped it sounded genuine. Hunk smiled at him.

“You’re welcome! Have a good day. Maybe we can all meet up later.” Then he was gone, and Keith was walking into another classroom.

It was weird that Keith knew who “we” was referring to, and weirder still that the idea kind of delighted him.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

True to his word, Hunk found keith after his classes and told him the “crew” was meeting up at a sushi place at 7 pm if he wanted to come.

“Shiro knows where it is,” Hunk said. “So don’t worry about getting lost.” he winked and Keith smiled.

“Thanks, Hunk.” Keith said, and waved goodbye before he started walking back to his apartment. It wasn’t too far from the college; a decent walk that Shiro said would help wake him up in the morning, and ultimately save him gas money. As it were, Keith wasn’t able to drive. He didn’t have a car and he was still working with a junior license. Shiro was teaching him how to drive when he had the time, but Keith didn’t want to pester him and Shiro was busy a lot. Shiro was nice enough to take him to his job, a little ice cream place called “What’s the Scoop?”. It was nice and clean with a pretty big variety of ice cream flavors, and the decorations weren’t too obnoxious. Keith liked it there. It wasn’t hard to scoop ice cream from tubs into dishes or cones and his coworkers pretty much left him alone. 

Laying in his bed after all those classes felt like a gift from God himself. It was 4:30. He could manage a nap before he had to get ready for sushi, and if he was being honest, he was excited. He had always visualized his first day of college with him being alone. He hadn’t expected to meet good people or have those same people invite him for sushi. It was new, and strange, but he was grateful, and he felt (just a little) like maybe Shiro was right (but he wouldn’t get his hopes up) and he was likable after all.

Keith woke up at 6 o’clock with messy hair, feeling sleepy but pretty happy. He put on different clothes from earlier that day that were way more comfortable and had just ran a brush through the ends of his hair before he heard Shiro knock on his door.

“Hey, buddy!” Shiro said as he entered. “How did your first day go?”  
“It actually went a lot better than I thought it would. Except…” Shiro’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Except what? Something wrong?” Keith laughed at Shiro’s seriousness.

“No, no. That haggar lady is just something else. I thought that she was gonna put curses on all of us.” Shiro laughed, relieved and amused.

“She’s like that, yeah. I remember her. She sells crystal balls at the flea market an hour away. I wouldn’t mess with her too much.”

“Noted,” Keith said. “So Hunk said you know how to get to the sushi place? Is it far?”

“Oh, yeah! No, not too bad. I’ll take you, of course. It’s really nice, Keith. It’s weird because their sushi is delicious but it’s like super cheap? Maybe because it’s a buffet but...Anyways, they have more than just sushi if you find you don’t like the texture.”

“No, I’ve had sushi before. I don’t mind it. You’re thinking of that time we went to Red Lobster and I almost threw up because of the shrimp.”

“That’s right,” Shiro said fondly. “What did you hate about it again?” Keith cringed.

“Like...the shell? Is that the right word? Like the hard casing around the meat? I wanted to die.”

“But you got fried shrimp?”

“The tail, then. Never again, Takashi.” Keith said, using Shiro’s first name for emphasis.

“I’ll make sure no one forces you to eat shrimp tails, Keith.” he said, laughing. It was easy like this all the time with him. Keith cherished it. 

“Get your jacket. Let’s go. Pidge always gets everywhere like fifteen minutes early and she's probably annoyed.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Fucking finally,” Pidge said, exasperated as Shiro and Keith joined her at the table. They were still waiting for Hunk and Lance. 

“Sorry, Pidge. You need to learn how to be a little late to things. Otherwise, you’re gonna be annoyed by other people your whole life.” Shiro said, pulling out a chair for Keith. Keith gave Shiro a funny look. He wanted to tell him he could pull out his own chair but he had done it to be nice so he just didn’t say anything. 

“Too late for that,” Pidge remarked, blowing her bangs out of her face, and both of them laughed.

“What’s up, groupies!” Lance said, showing up with Hunk not far behind him and some other guy that Keith hadn’t met yet.

“Hey, Shiro, Keith. Hey, Pidge. Glad you guys are here. Wow, it’s nice to be back with everyone again. I realize we all saw each other like, a few hours ago, but that was different. We were all panicking.” Hunk said.

“You were panicking. I was cool as a cucumber.” Lance said. Keith went “What,” and Shiro went “It means he was calm,” and Pidge was roasting Lance. The guy standing behind Lance cleared his throat.

“Hi! i’m Chau.”

“Oh, yeah! Guys, this is my boyfriend. Hunk and Pidge met him earlier on, but I know you guys haven’t yet. We’ve been dating since like...late June?” Lance asked, turning to Chau for confirmation. He smiled.

“Yeah, that’s right.” He looked at keith. “So you are…?”

“I’m Keith.” he said. “Nice to meet you.” Shiro, next to him, looked more excited. Keith could see Chau stare briefly at his prosthetic arm and he was instinctively protective. 

“I’m Shiro! Wow, Lance. I’m happy for you guys. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.” It was weird. Something about seeing them together gave Keith a weird feeling. It wasn’t jealousy. It couldn’t be, because he had only just met Lance, but the word boyfriend. It was like it woke something inside himself. He’d never really given much thought to his sexuality, and to see a happy gay couple in front of him practically forced him to think about it. He had tried to have a conversation about it with Shiro once, but it hadn’t really ended with any answers.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you think, Keith? What kind of people are you into?” Keith let out a long, very intelligent sounding “um” and thought hard.

“I don’t...really know? I’ve never really thought about it.”

“You never get like crushes or anything? Never see anyone you find attractive?”

“Well, I see attractive people, but that doesn’t really mean anything to me. I mean, I appreciate their appearance, but that’s all the impression it really leaves on me, and no, actually. I don’t get crushes. I haven’t had one, I don’t think.”

“I see,” Shiro said, with an understanding tone. He liked it because Shiro didn’t have to try hard to sound understanding and calm. He just naturally was like that. “Well I don’t know who I like either.” Shiro laughed. “I think I just like people.”

“Yeah,” Keith smiled. “That’s a good way to put it”.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You alright?" Shiro said, nudging Keith underneath the table.  
"Huh? Yeah" he said, feeling a little unsettled. Shiro eyed him warily. He whispered.  
"If there's too much going on we can leave. If it gets to be too much just twist my sleeve. I'll make something up." Keith frowned. He felt fine, and he would hate to make Shiro leave a meetup with his friends.  
"I'll be okay." he whispered back. "It's just been a while since I've been around so many people." He said, and Shiro seemed to accept that answer. Pidge eyed them from across the table but said nothing. She still didn't have a grasp on Keith and Shiro's relationship. She wondered why Keith had never been mentioned before.

"-and I'm like 'Hunk, no!' because the fruit was plastic, and I didn't even have a fire extinguisher..." Keith realized suddenly that he had been spacing out for the majority of whatever story Lance had been telling, and it was no use trying to understand it. Beside him, Shiro's body quaked with laughter. Across the table, Chau looked very much in love with Lance, and it knocked the wind out of Keith. Maybe it was getting a little hard to breathe in there.

"Holy shit." Lance said suddenly. "You guys, we've been here for like 20 minutes and we haven't even gotten our sushi yet. What the fuck." Sounds of surprise came from all around the table followed by the scraping of chairs on the ground and silverware clattering. 

"I'll stay here and watch everyone's bags," Keith said. Shiro gave him a searching look, and Keith nodded back at him, as if saying “I'm fine, you can go.”

"Me too," Chau said, looking at Lance. "With both of us here, no thieves stand a chance." Everyone laughed. Shiro leaned down to whisper in Keith's ear.  
"I'll go back out with you again in a minute. It's kinda crowded." Keith nodded and Shiro went off to get his plate. Hunk, beside him, spoke animatedly and happily. He saw Shiro laugh and smiled fondly. 

"You guys are close." Chau observed. Keith turned around. For some reason he hadn't realized Chau might actually talk to him. He hummed affirmatively.  
"So what are you guys?" He asked, but not unkindly. "Is he your boyfriend?" Keith colored at that.  
"Oh, no. He's not...It's kinda weird I guess. I don't know what to call it. It's not like that. At least I don't think so. I think "close" is a good way to describe it, like you said." Chau nodded.

"I haven't heard Lance mention you before..?"  
"I just met him today actually. I only really know Shiro."  
"Oh," he said drawing out the syllable in realization. "That makes sense. First day of college, right?" Keith nodded. All this talking was making him tired.  
"Yeah. You?"  
"Nah," he said, sitting up in his chair. "It's my second year. I actually go to a different school." Just as Keith went to respond, everyone came back. They looked happy, the way college students should. Lance set his plate down and grabbed Chau by the arm.  
"Let's get you some food," he said brightly and Shiro showed up behind Keith.  
"Come on, Keith. You must be starving." Keith got up and followed Shiro closely.  
"So it's like, Americanized food over there." He pointed to the left. "And sushi and other Asian cuisine over there." He pointed to the right. Keith nodded and gets a plate. He picked up some sushi rolls using the tongs provided and Shiro leaned in closer to him.  
"How're you doing?" Keith could tell by the way Shiro said it that he was actually asking “Are you freaking out? Do we need to leave?” and Shiro had always given him the option to leave. Always..  
"I think I'm good. I was just talking to Chau and-"  
"I don't like him." Shiro said abruptly..  
"What?" Keith said, surprised. "He seemed fine to me...You seemed happy back at the table." "I was happy for Lance, but I just realized a minute ago that my friend Allura has talked to me about him before. Chau is really mean to her. Lance seems to like him, but I don't know how long that'll last." Keith considered it.  
"Maybe he's different with Lance." Shiro hummed.  
"Maybe." He looked around, and then at Keith’s full plate. "Ready to go back to the table?" Keith nodded. He considered telling Shiro that Chau thought they were dating, for laughs, but then decided against it.

He joined the table and it was loud and alive. Hunk was holding up two sushi rolls like they were eyes, and Pidge was telling them all about some particle accelerator. Hunk was listening eagerly, his full attention on her and Lance was acting out some of Hunk's most hilarious (embarrassing) middle school moments. Chau choked on his water from laughing and Shiro smiled, calm and relaxed. Then he was telling a story about him and Matt accidentally locking themselves in the school bathroom last year. Pidge was listening intently. Keith laughed, drank in all of the memories like they were his own. The sushi tasted good in his mouth and Shiro's knee was against his, thoughtless and casual. The pressure against his leg was reassuring, and he felt really good. Then Hunk brought up how much he missed his family already, and everyone followed suit. Keith felt a little less good then. Shiro shot him a wary look. Keith didn't get too emotional, at least not outwardly, but Shiro had never been sure how much he held inside, and he didn't want Keith having a shutdown so early into the school year. If it was a particularly bad one (and the conditions were right for it with all the new people he was meeting, the new things he was experiencing) it'd be a lot harder for Keith to adjust to college life. 

"I just miss my mom's cooking, you know? You guys probably think I'm a nerd or something-"

"Aw, Hunk. We think you're a nerd but it’s not because you miss your parents," Pidge kicked Lance's shin under the table. "Ow! Not cool, Pidge." 

"It's gonna be weird not coming home and seeing my mom every day. The idea is still new to me." Shiro nodded.

"Yeah it's like that. You'll get used to it though, and then you might look forward to being away from them." Keith laughed.  
"I'm gonna tell your mom you said that,"  
"You better not" Shiro said, looking a little alarmed. "You know what she said to me before we left? 'If you lose Keith there'll be hell to pay' I can't afford another strike."  
"What?" Keith said, amused but surprised. "Why'd she say that?" Hunk was smiling.  
"You know Shiro's mom?" He asked. there was a warmth in his tone, and yet a subtle urging for Keith to explain himself further. Hunk’s expression was gentle.  
"Yeah. She’s a wonderful lady.." Lance whistled.  
"Aw, man. We haven't met his parents yet. You have VIP seats, bro." Keith smiled and thought "You don't know the half of it."  
Lance lifted a piece of food to his mouth and Pidge smacked it across the room.  
"What the fuck, Pidge?" Lance said  
"You're allergic to pineapple, you fucking asshole. I was saving your life."  
"Oh. Then thank you." Shiro laughed  
"This group is a piece of work."  
"You can say that again," Chau said.

But somehow Keith didn't mind that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry this took so long. school starts tomorrow for me and i was doing all sorts of stuff. anyways, this might end up being 4 parts. i'm not sure yet. but here we go! this update is a little longer than the last one so i hope that makes up for how long it took.

Keith fell asleep happily after the sushi hangout. It had been pleasantly exhausting to be around so many people and engage in light banter after so much time alone. Shiro spent a lot of time with him but it could never fill that void deep inside of him, the chasm he tried very hard to never think about that had been made long ago by a lack of parents and deepened by the consequential lack of stability. When Keith was 8, he pulled chairs over to the counter so he could climb from chair to counter, and then stand on the counter to reach the bread that was on top of the fridge. He was not tall enough to reach on his own, but a father would’ve been.

He never told Shiro how much he hurt sometimes, how much he ached in unexplainable ways like his lack of a family was a real and tangible burden sitting on his chest and preventing him from breathing. He wasn’t even sure what names to give to the emotions he felt sometimes and he couldn’t solve a problem if he couldn’t even figure out what the problem actually was in the first place, so he never brought it up.

As he fell asleep though, the chasm felt smaller than usual. He hoped, maybe foolishly, that it would continue to shrink like that.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith got up and got ready alone on the second day of school. Shiro had asked him if he wanted him to come over but Keith was realizing that he had to start being more independent because, as nice as Shiro was, he was sure he found Keith to be somewhat of an annoyance, and he was secretly afraid of Shiro growing to resent him for constantly needing his help and reassurance. He had decided even before college started that he would try to gradually wean himself off of Shiro’s guidance until he could steer himself around with little to no difficulty. Until he was more or less self sufficient. Yet, as if sensing this feeling of guilt, Shiro had told him that he never minded helping him.

“Keith, it’s not like...I don’t feel like you’re taking advantage of me and you’re definitely not a nuisance. I do all of this of my own volition because you’re my friend and I-” It was a hiccup, a glitch in the system. He had almost said the “l” word but he didn’t want to spook Keith. It wasn’t a romantic kind of love, but somehow it was stronger. He felt like he’d well and truly die for Keith, like he would do anything for him. He didn’t know how to tell Keith that without stressing him out. No affection and then too much all at once seemed like a recipe for disaster. He didn’t even know if Keith felt as strongly about him, like they were family or the best of friends. 

“I do this because I care,” he said instead, and Keith looked at him with something soft and strange in his eyes. The same eyes that were so stormy most of the time, so turbulent. He looked young like that, and painfully so. He looked malleable, and that was always what Shiro feared, that someone would take him and mold him atrociously to suit their needs. It wasn’t that Keith was impressionable so much as it was that he had no standard for so many things, nothing to compare them to. It’d be hard for him to know better if he ended up in a bad situation.  
“If you want me to help you, then ask. I can always say no, right? But if I say yes, then what’s the harm in it? And you- I try not to bring this up because I know it hurts, but Keith, it’s always been you alone right? You against the world? I don’t fault you for not knowing how to do things. Who the hell ever took the time to teach you?” Shiro’s voice suddenly got louder. Sometimes, it was like Keith being an orphan got to Shiro more than it got to Keith, and Keith never knew what to make of that. Shiro was an empath. He was nonchalant about it, composed, but he still hurt. It was like Shiro could enter a room and taste the sorrow on Keith’s tongue, could feel tired the way Keith always felt, a tiredness that grew in his bones like mold on an old sponge. He didn’t want to hurt Shiro like that.

“I'm sorry for yelling. I just want you to know that I'm always here for you. I never want you to blame yourself for not knowing how to do something that comes easily to other people. What you find hard might be easy to a million other people but you know what? What is hard for them may be easy for you. You’re good at saying what you think. You don’t pull punches. Other people beat around the bush and are unhappy their whole lives. That’s never gonna happen to you. You wouldn’t let it.”

“Is that just a fancy way of saying I'm mean?” Keith said, trying to break the tension, and Shiro actually smiled.

“No, Mr. Moment Ruiner. It’s a fancy way of saying you’ve got your own set of skills and other people have their own sets of skills, and if you want to maybe add some skills to your set or improve upon a few that you already have, I will always support that and do my best to help you. That make sense?”

“Perfect sense.” 

“Good. You want an ice cream cone? I'm like bursting with energy and I just wanna go out and drive. Let’s go to McDonald’s or something.”

“Is driving your only emotional outlet?”

“Normally, no, but it’s like 4 am. This is the worst time because it’s too close to morning to be night but it’s not morning either. It’s like...some kind of time purgatory.”

“McDonald’s exists in purgatory?”

“Of course.”

“Alright. Let’s get in your car then.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith had never meant to get so used to Shiro’s presence but nevertheless he had. It felt lonely as he pulled on his shirt in the silence of his room. Outside, he heard the sounds of urban life. gentle construction noises, too far away to be a disturbance. Cars. Indistinct chatter was a vague hum with the window cracked. He walked to school, and the air was warm and kind of stuffy. In his bag he had brought an extra shirt, in case it got too hot later and his current three/fourth sleeve proved insufferable. His sunglasses if it got too bright. A bottle of water. He had just one class and then he had to head to work. It was hot out, and thus the ice cream shop would probably be fairly busy. He thought of Raúl in the back with his huge bun bouncing animatedly on top of his head as he rushed to make milkshakes and sundaes and it made him smile. The sun wasn’t so harsh, and it felt like a warm embrace all along his exposed skin.

The walk wasn’t too bad. It felt nice to be alone and not lonely for once. He arrived sooner than he expected, and having seen the campus once before and having Hunk explain the basics of where everything was, he thought he had a general idea of where to go. He was internally really fucking excited when he found the right class on his own, because he thought for once he might be able to do this whole adult thing, get a handle on it and let Shiro live his own life instead of babysitting him. Maybe he’d get driving lessons soon so he could finally get his license. He’d keep saving up his money and get a little trashy car. He didn’t care if it was pretty, just wanted it to be functional enough to bring him where he needed to go. He wanted to experience independence in a way that wasn’t due to him having no one to depend on but himself. That was his goal. He realized he was spacing out fifteen minutes into class and thought to himself that if he didn’t pay attention, that independence thing was going to take a lot longer to accomplish.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This shit is wild. Are you trying to cure cancer here? Is that what this equation is for?”

“No, genius. It’s a calc problem. It’s not as complex as you think. I could explain it, but I know you don’t care that much.” Lance shot finger guns at Pidge.

“You know me well, little lady.”

“I better after so many years of friendship. Do you know me as well as I know you? What’s my favorite soda?”

“Orange. Root beer? Sprite. It’s Sprite.”

“It took you three tries? What kind of fake friend are you?”

“You like all of those!”

“I didn’t ask you what sodas I liked. I asked for my favorite.”

“Hunk, help me out here.” Lance said, slightly exasperated.

“No can do, buddy. I'm trying to do my homework. Where is yours, by the way? Oh right, sitting there in front of you, not being worked on.”

“I'm getting to it. Damn. I just had to get my creative juices flowing first.”

“It’s been an hour and ten minutes.”

“And now my creative juices are flowing. Mission accomplished.” They worked in silence for a few moments, and then Hunk put his pencil down.

“Hey, guys?” he asked, and Pidge and Lance lifted their heads to look at him.

“What’s up? Do you wanna go on a Taco Bell run? Because I'm totally down for that. I want a quesarito like nobody’s business.” Hunk didn’t look impressed.

“Okay first of all, no. Actually, maybe. I want a PepsI and a burrito. But that wasn’t what I was gonna say. Do you think we should invite Keith next time we have one of our study slash homework sessions?”

“I don’t see why not, but what brought that up?” Lance asked.

“I don’t know. I think it’d make Shiro really happy, and I think we should get to know Keith better.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s see what makes ‘Shiro’s best friend’ tick. We’ll text him next time we hang out. I’ll get his number from Shiro.” Pidge said.

“Why even wait for him to give it to you? Just hack into his phone and extract the number now.” Lance said, playing absentmindedly with Pidge’s hair.

“Get your hands off my mane, and that’s not how that works. Plus, I respect Shiro’s privacy.”

“Was that a dig at me? Do you think I don’t respect people’s privacy?” Lance said, looking to his left where Hunk was texting.

“Are you seriously trying to tell me that you respect people’s privacy as you’re literally trying to read Hunk’s personal text messages? Are you serious?” Pidge said, smacking Lance’s hand away.

“They’re not that personal. Just to Shay and Nyma.” Hunk said, looking up briefly.

“Oh, yeah! The Polychat. How’s that going?” Lance’s eyes widened. He wanted all the gossip, even if it wasn’t really gossip so much as just information about a friend’s life, but still, he wanted it. He was happy that Hunk was in a relationship and that it seemed to be making him happy. Hunk had met Shay first, only to find out that she had a girlfriend named Nyma. Hunk had been disappointed, because he’d really been planning on giving Shay his number and maybe meeting up sometime, but Shay had told him that neither she or Nyma were lesbians, and that they were open to maybe having a third person in their relationship, if he was okay with that sort of thing. Hunk met Nyma the next day at a bubble tea shop and decided he was definitely okay with that sort of thing. Shay was sweet and soft and Nyma was sharp and kinda rough. They baLanced each other out well and the three of them had a good dynamic. Hunk couldn’t hope for better, honestly. The only bad part was that Nyma never let anyone else have the aux cord and while Hunk didn’t mind her music taste, sometimes he just wanted to listen to his own playlists.. 

“Really well, to be honest.” Lance peaked over his shoulder and Hunk let him. 

“Nyma uses a lot of emojis.”

“I know. It makes me and Shay mad. One time she tried to have a conversation with us strictly in emojis.”

“How’d that go?” Pidge piped up.

“Unfortunately very well. The conversation was about what we wanted to eat, and she replied with food emojis. Damn her.” Pidge snorted.

“Well played, Nyma. Well played.” she said.

“Chau hates emojis, so I make sure to incorporate at least 11 emojis per sentence.” Lance said.

“Ah, the romantics.” Pidge said wistfully, her focus back on her homework.

“O goddess of aromanticism.” Lance said, tapping her head with a pencil.

“I can’t believe all those kids used to say Hunk would never get a girlfriend. He has two, and they’re both beautiful and love him. If this was movie, I’d give it a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.” Pidge said. .

“Why not a 100%?” Hunk asked, feeling oddly offended.

“I'm sure your acting would leave a lot to be desired.” Hunk considered that.

“Fair enough.”

“He can’t even tell his mom a lie with a straight face,” Lance laughed.

“And you can’t even have a straight face ever, because you’re a bisexual shitlord,” Pidge said, and well. Checkmate.

“Are we gonna go to taco bell or not?” Lance slammed his hands down on the table, ignoring Pidge. 

“Your mom would smack you if she found out you were eating Taco Bell,” Hunk laughed.

“I know, I know. It’s not real Mexican food,” he said, making a ridiculous face and imitating his mother’s voice. “Fucking sue me. The fake stuff is good and they have cinnamon twists.” 

“Can’t argue with cinnamon twists.” Pidge mumbled.

“I love those things. We should use them as currency.” Lance proclaimed, and they all laughed.

“You’d be poor as hell, dude. You’d eat all your money.” Lance thought about that for a second.

“Fuck,” he said. “You’re right. paper money it is.”

“Pidge, put down that binder. We’re gonna get in the car.” Pidge put a pencil on the page to mark her place and shut her white binder before getting up to join them.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, beautiful, how’s it going?” Shiro asked, leaning over the counter, laughing when Allura turned around. She gasped, relieved.

“Fuck you,” she whispered, because they were in a library. “I thought you were that creepy accounting major. I almost knocked you out with an encyclopedia.” She lifted up a huge book that looked very heavy, with no visible sign of discomfort. She had always been so strong. Shiro was afraid of her.

“Why is it so big?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Probably because it’s full of information.” she said, flipping to a random page. “Oh, hey. Did you know hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards?” she asked, and Shiro laughed.

“No.” he said, as she shut the book. She stood up so that they were eye level and leaned over the counter. She worked in the university library as an assistant, but their librarian was notoriously lazy, so Allura was left to do a lot of the work. She didn’t really mind as long as she got paid.

“So what’s up?” she asked. 

“You know a guy named Chau Nguyen?” he asked, and Allura’s face flashed disgust.

“Unfortunately. Why?”

“You know Lance McClain? My friend? Brown skin, about this tall?” he said, gesturing with his hand. 

“The flirty one? What about him? Is he still mad about me insulting his ears, because that was-”

“Yeah, that’s him. Chau is his boyfriend.” Allura pretended to gag.

“Gross. he probably makes Lance pay for everything and never texts him back.”

“He’s really rude to you, right?”

“Yeah. I was in Chem and I had never even talked to him before, but I didn’t understand what we had to do in this titration lab, so I just asked him a question about it, and he was like ‘if you don’t know then you should just drop this class. It’s only gonna get harder from here on out. maybe you should find an easier one’. What an asshole. I hope someone steals his wallet,” Allura said, shuddering.

“See, that is definitely assholish, but now I feel worse. I don’t want Lance to get hurt. I think he gives a lot of himself in a relationship. He deserves better.”

“I get that, but what do you plan on doing about it? If he likes Chau, he likes him. Maybe he’s nice to Lance. I hate the guy. I would rather date an old gum wrapper, but maybe there’s something about Lance that makes him act sweeter. Wasn’t he at sushI with you and the crew last night?”

“Yeah, but something about him is funny. He acted fine, but I just couldn’t shake this feeling like I didn’t like him, and I had to leave Keith alone with him. Keith said that he wasn’t rude or anything, but I don’t want him around Keith, either.”

“Ah, fuck. Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be very understanding.” Allura said, knowing very well how much Shiro cared about Keith.

“That’s what I'm thinking.” Shiro replied, his mouth in a firm line.

“I guess the most you can do is just keep an eye out for him. That can’t hurt anything.” Allura suggested

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Aw, a papa bear defending his cubs.” Allura cooed.

“Shut up. Go stamp a book or something.”

“I resent that.”

“I resent you.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day, Shiro met up with Pidge, Lance, and Hunk at a coffee place not too far from their university. It was like a knock-off Starbucks, all the same drinks but called different things and made just a little cheaper. It was pretty popular with the local college students who weren’t so stuck up as to turn down generic brand coffee that tasted the same but was cheaper. 

“Hey guys,” Shiro said, setting his bag down next to him. He had just arrived, but the others already had gotten their drinks. Lance had whipped cream on his nose and nobody had bothered to tell him.

“Where’s Keith?” Hunk asked.

“Oh, he’s at work right now. You know ‘What’s The Scoop’? That’s where he works.”

“At an ice cream shop? That’s so cute,” Pidge said. “Does he have to wear a uniform?”

“Mhm. A red apron and this little visor. He hates the visor. He has to wear his hair in this little ponytail. It’s store policy.” Lance snickered.

“What I wouldn’t give to see that.”

“You wouldn’t have to give much of anything. All you’d have to do is go see him at work.”

“Maybe we should surprise him,” Pidge suggested. Shiro seemed to consider it. Keith normally hated surprises, but this wasn’t a typical surprise, and there was a good chance that Keith wouldn’t mind.

“How ‘bout after we finish our drinks? I think that’d be nice,” he said, and they all nodded.

“I wanted to thank you guys,” Shiro said, “for welcoming Keith into our group and everything. you could’ve been standoffish because you didn’t know him but you weren’t. I really appreciate that, and I'm sure Keith does, too. He’s new to all of this too, and I think having a friend group like you guys is gonna make it a lot easier for him to adjust.”

“Of course,” Hunk said. “he’s a nice guy. I'm glad you introduced us. We were actually thinking we should invite him to study with us next time. I think everyone benefits from group study sessions.” Shiro’s eyes lit up, and it didn’t go unnoticed. 

“I think you’re right about that,” Shiro said, and Lance spoke up.

“Being social isn’t really Keith’s thing, is it? I'm not being mean, he just seems like he’s not a huge fan of it. You know, talking and stuff.” Pidge gave Lance a look, but he ignored it.

“You’re not wrong. He’s a really nice guy, but socializing takes a lot out of him. Keith’s autistic, like Pidge.”

“Oh, sweet!” Pidge said. 

“He’s so different from Pidge, though. Pidge never shuts up.” Pidge shot Hunk a weak glare and Shiro laughed.

“Well, that’s true. But autistic people aren’t all the same. Pidge seems to enjoy socializing and talking more. That’s just how her autism presents. Keith prefers to talk less because being around other people really tires him out. They’re both autistic, they’re just different. It’s a personality thing, too. I just wanted to let you guys know because even though Pidge is our reigning queen of sarcasm, and Keith is pretty good at it too, sometimes he might not catch onto the nuances of your jokes.” He looked pointedly at Lance. “Or he might take something too literally, and I didn’t want you guys to pick on him too much for it.”

“Message received,” Lance said.

“Good,” Shiro said, having gotten to the bottom of his drink. Lance had gotten to the end of his a long time ago, but he insisted on making that pathetic slurping noise until absolutely no liquid of any kind was left in it, and it was starting to get on Hunk’s nerves.

“Let’s go visit Keith,” he said, smiling, and they got up and threw their empty drink cups in the trash.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they entered the ice cream shop, a bell signaled their entrance and Keith looked up and noticed them with wide eyes.

“Oh! Hey, guys. What are you doing here?” and true to Shiro’s word, Keith was wearing a red visor with his dark hair pulled back in a lazy low ponytail. Lance wanted to find it funny, but instead it made Keith look cute and even kind of pretty,

“We just wanted to stop by, get some ice cream. You know, hang out and chat a bit.” Lance said, voice falsely suave as he surveyed their ice cream flavor inventory.

“What the fuck is ‘merman’s delight’?” he asked suddenly, frowning as he stared through the glass separating him from the ice cream.

“It’s salted caramel sauce over bubblegum flavored ice cream with mint sprinkles.” Keith said, and Lance stared at him.

“That sounds absolutely disgusting.” he said, feeling more than a little dead inside.

“And I agree with you completely. Believe me, I didn’t choose to stock the flavor.”

“What part of that even has anything to do with mermen?” Lance asked, outraged.

“Ask Raúl, not me.” Keith shrugged.

“Who’s that?”

“Milkshake guy in the back. He named it that.”

“Well Raúl has a pretty fucking convoluted idea of what mermen like, and I’d like to set him straight on the matter.” Lance said, pulling up his sleeves like he was ready to fight.

“Calm down, Hulk Hogan,” Pidge said, pulling his sleeves back down. “Can I get chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups in a cone please?”

“Sure thing, Pidge. What do you guys want?” he asked, referring to Shiro and Pidge. Lance was still staring mutinously at the ice cream flavor names.

“Vanilla soft serve,” Shiro said, and Keith sighed.

“Should’ve known. You’re so boring. Why don’t you branch out? Try something new? Oh, we could put sprinkles on it. Wouldn’t that be a fun change of pace?” he asked as he pulled down the soft serve lever and it swirled into the cone.

“I'm boring, and I'm proud of it. Hand me my unsprinkled cone.” Shiro said, smiling, and Keith handed it to him, getting to work on Pidge’s chocolate cone.

“Do you want a waffle cone?” he looked around himself, and then whispered. “More ice cream fits in a waffle cone,” and Pidge smiled.

“Sounds good to me,” Pidge said. Lance spoke up.

“I want a brownie sundae.”

“Got it. Hunk?”

“The Butterfinger crunch thing looks good.” Hunk said, and Keith nodded. 

“Got it,” he said, and within moments everyone had their ice cream paid for and in their hands, happily eating. No other customers came in for a while after that, so Keith just rearranged the change in the register, fiddled with things around him. Nobody spoke because their mouths were busy, but after some time had passed and everyone had eaten enough of their ice cream that it was no longer in danger of melting and making a mess, conversation ignited like a match. Keith could hear Hunk crunch.

“Hey, Keith?” Hunk asked, and Keith looked up, his visor feeling itchy on his head.

“Yeah?”

“Would you want to study with us sometime? We have these study sessions like...sporadically but super frequently. I mean, the year just started so there’s no need to really buckle down and cram or anything. We’ve just been doing this for awhile. It’s like, tradition or something. We studied together in high school all the time, too, and we figure…” Shiro was smiling. 

“...Four heads are better than three? You know, if you’d be interested in that sort of thing...” Hunk trailed off and Keith’s heart was probably beating too fast considering Hunk was talking about studying, but he couldn’t help it. He was happy. 

“That sounds good, you guys. I’d like that.” Hunk gave him a big, warm smile and so did the others, though their mouths were covered in ice cream.

“Great! We’ll text you the next time we have one! Sometimes we bring food or we go out and get food together. They’re oddly fun for study sessions to be honest? At least most of the time. Not finals, though. Finals will probably suck.”

“If we’re gonna die, I say let’s do it together!” Lance cheered, holding up his ice cream in absence of a free hand to fist pump with.

“We won’t die, we’ll just want to. This isn’t gonna be like finals week last year. Have you learned nothing?” Pidge said.

“Okay, sue me. I poured Red Bull in my coffee one time. One fucking time and you won’t let it go. I’ve changed, okay? I’ve gone through like five changes in the last minute and a half.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. In fact, I changed just now. You know how my favorite character on Bob’s Burgers was Linda? Well now it’s Gene. Take that, asshole.” he said, poking at Hunk with his spoon, and Hunk laughed. Raúl poked his head out from the back and looked at the group of people at the table.

“What’s up? I heard raucous laughter, and it wasn’t because of a joke I told. That’s not cool. Is this a family reunion or something?” Raúl said. His bun flopped animatedly with every minute motion of his head.

“Oh. Hey, Raúl. no-” Keith began to say, but was interrupted by Lance.

“Are you the fucker responsible for merman’s delight?” Lance asked, and Pidge smacked lightly at his arm. Lance turned to her. “No, Pidge. This is my fight. You gotta stand up for what you believe in. Explain yourself, Raúl.” Raúl laughed loudly and all his big sparkly teeth showed. That was what sucked about Raúl. He was such a fun, chill guy. It was impossible to piss him off, even if you wanted to. Keith had been working with Raúl for months, and he’d never seen Raúl get legitimately mad, even when faced with really shitty customers.

“Dude, I don’t got an explanation. It just felt right. You ever do that? Just do something ‘cause it feels right?” Lance wanted to be mad, but something in him softened at that instead. He crossed his arms.

“‘Do you ever do that?’ Yes, I fucking do that. I live my whole life doing that and that alone. I have zero impulse control. I have not used logic to justify something in eleven days.” he said indignantly. Raúl laughed and turned towards Keith.

“What cartoon did he pop out of? I love it. Is he your friend?” And something about the question felt heavy. Keith was realizing now he wasn’t sure if they had solidified their status as friends. Keith was suddenly reminded of how couples became anxious at the thought of publicly announcing their relationship status and vaguely, in the back of his mind, The X-Files theme played. He wondered if other people thought the word friend was so important, that it held so much meaning. He wondered if it was just a word to them.

“Yeah. We haven’t known each other that long, though. I can’t be held responsible for anything he says or does,” he said, gesturing towards Lance. None of them had visibly blanched when he said yes, so he figured they were kind of on the same page now, about being friends. It still felt wrong somehow. He wondered if it was a fluke, if they didn’t notice him saying it. It wasn’t that Keith thought he was someone so undesirable to be around, but with moving around so much and having to isolate himself just to stay afloat during high school, not having that energy to engage in even minor social interactions, the concept of friendship felt fairly new. Shiro, as always, was the overwhelming exception. In the back of his mind, Keith tried to avoid forming an idea of permanence.

Never get used to anything, he told himself. Don’t get too used to anything because it’s all temporary, and for all you know it could all be gone tomorrow.

“Keith,” Shiro would say. “don’t think like that,” but he knew Keith had every reason to feel that way. Keith got thrown around like old shit at a garage sale until he was sixteen. That home lasted half a year. A new home. Then another one. Then he met Shiro. Making friends was a waste of time. He didn’t have the energy to expend. Didn’t have enough space in his heart for anyone but himself, didn’t know how many times someone could lose something before they just never had anything at all.

Shiro said “Hi. It’s nice to meet you. Are you my new neighbor?” and Keith froze like a TV dinner in the freezer aisle of a supermarket, standing there with eyes almost uncomprehending. He wondered if he had taken too long to reply, if he had missed his chance. Shiro looked at him searchingly. “It hasn’t been easy for you, has it?” It was a question that managed to not make him feel like he was being picked and prodded at, and the way he looked at Shiro after that, his momentarily vulnerable expression before his face settled back into measured indifference, that had been a good enough answer.

Around him the world went on. He wasn’t sure what was happening, who was talking. He thought he heard Lance exclaim something happily, something in spanish. Raúl answered him, but no one understood what they were saying. 

“¿Eres cubano? Mi padre es de Cuba, pero mi madre es guatemalteca...”

“Keith? You okay?” Shiro’s soft voice filtered over them, and Keith didn’t look up. Shiro was positive something was wrong. He had attracted the attention of Pidge and Hunk, but Raúl and Lance were enthralled in conversation. Shiro didn’t exactly have a system for dealing with these kinds of things. It was purely improvisation. He saw the far off look in Keith’s eyes, the beginnings of a shutdown and slowly, so as not to alarm him, pulled him into a tight hug. He hoped it would soothe him a bit, and Keith wasn’t big on hugs, but he loved the steady pressure.

“Everyone benefits from pressure,” the article online had said. “The feeling of a tight hug simulates the tightness of the walls of the womb around a baby. It is instantly soothing.” He just held Keith like that for a moment, until Keith blinked and looked up at him. he opened his mouth, but then was quiet, and he frowned.

“S’okay.” Shiro whispered. “We can talk later.” and Keith felt that peace rush over him, that reassurance. His thoughts had fallen on him like an avalanche, and then he wasn’t in the ice cream shop anymore. He was nowhere. Raúl and Lance had noticed by now that something had gone on while they were talking, and Pidge and Hunk were giving Keith sympathetic glances.

“Raúl,” Shiro said. “Can you let whoever’s in charge know that Keith needs to come home for a bit? He might be able to come back in later, but he isn’t feeling well and needs to rest.” Raúl nodded. He wasn’t knowledgeable of Keith’s situation by any means, but he had realized through working with Keith that his life was somewhat complicated, just by how Shiro brought him to work and the way Shiro spoke to him, not condescendingly, but like everything was a secret, like every word was private.

At first, it had weirded Raúl out, like they were speaking in code, but then he realized that Shiro was just a good guy trying to help out his friend. Shiro leaned close to Keith’s ear.

“Wanna go home? Do you want to be alone or do you want me there? I have time.” He remembered Keith was having trouble speaking and fixed his questions. Yes or no questions, easy questions.

“Do you want to go home?” Keith nodded. “Do you want to be by yourself?” Keith shook his head. “Got it. Okay, we can do that. We can always do that.” He turned back to the group of teens staring at him.

“We’re gonna head out for a bit. Talk to you guys later.” They nodded understandingly, and Lance’s body tensed in a way that meant he was gonna hound Hunk and Pidge for information the second the door shut behind Shiro and Keith. Which he did, promptly after the bell sounded and they were far enough away.

“What happened?” he asked, a voice that sounded a little panicked. 

“I'm not sure. You and Raúl were talking, and then he just kinda stopped being involved in the situation. Looked pretty lost in his own head. Maybe Shiro will fill us in later. I'm kinda worried.” Pidge said, and beside her, Hunk nodded.

“I sure hope so.” Lance said, looking oddly stressed out by the whole thing, and Raúl watched curiously.

“Lance, can I have your number?” Lance gave him a weird look. “No, not like that. Just to keep in touch, text in Spanish...Maybe you can give me updates on our boy Keith? I don’t know too much about him. We just work together, but he’s a nice guy. I want to get to know him a little better. I’d like to see him outside of work, even. Let me know if he’s okay?” he asked, and Lance nodded. 

“Of course, give me your number and I’ll text you from my phone.” and then Raúl, being Raúl, took a nice clean, unused ice cream cone and pulled a Sharpie out of fucking nowhere, and proceeded to write the digits on it.

“Are you fucking serious? Phone number request denied. There’s like 50 better alternatives all around you. There’s like a million napkins…” Lance said.

“There’s actually a little thing of Post-It notes like two inches away from him, but hey, sure. Napkins are the best alternative to the ice cream cone he’s currently writing on.” Pidge said.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shiro mostly left Keith alone on the way to his apartment. Keith handed Shiro the key so he could open his door because for some reason Keith just really sucked at opening doors using keys. It took him like ten minutes to get his door unlocked on a good day. Was the key in? Was he turning it the right way? Would he ever know? He typically unlocked it and locked it again on accident like three times before he figured it out.

Shiro unlocked the door within seconds and handed Keith his key, making a mental note to have some spares made as he did so. Keith went and got changed wordlessly into some of his favorite pajamas, which were what Shiro called “comfort clothes”. Shiro remembered those particular pajamas well from surprise visits to Keith during senior year, from the time Keith looked like he’d never showered ever and Shiro had to force him to for his own good. When Keith came back in, he looked tense, but better. Shiro sat on his bed. He patted the spot next to him and Keith joined him.

“Come here,” he said, and Keith scootched closer. For situations like this, Keith had given Shiro permission to hug him if he thought it would make him feel better. Shiro’s arms wrapped around him as he squeezed. They remained for a bit in the embrace until Keith pulled away and Shiro let him.

“You okay?” Shiro asked, and Keith nodded. He cleared his throat, getting ready to talk. Opened his mouth. Steeled himself. Tried again.

“Yeah.” he managed to say. It was a little garbled, a little scratchy.

“What happened back there?”

“Don’t know. I felt fine, and then everything kinda got to me.” Shiro considered his words.

“Well, you’ve been around people so frequently the last couple days. Like hardcore socializing. You’re probably exhausted. Maybe it was just delayed. Like usually you get drained immediately, but maybe this time it just came late. You felt okay the last couple days?”

“I felt great,”

“Must’ve piled up, then. Shit was bound to hit the fan sooner or later, huh? I'm glad I was there when it did. You should sleep. Are you tired?”

“I can’t tell. My head hurts. Like, really bad.”

“We’re gonna have to work out a plan for this. This isn’t high school. It’s different, and it’s a bit less of a routine because there’s a lot more freedom. A lot more spontaneity. I don’t want you to make yourself sick pushing yourself. You had your first day of college, met the gang, had sushi with them in a loud, crowded sushi place, and then you took yourself to class and worked, and then you worked again today and talked to everyone again. There wasn’t a lot of time to like...recharge. We’ll work on that. We’ll figure it out. Keith Kogane’s shutdown free college experience begins...tomorrow. ”

“That sounds like a shitty indie film title.” Shiro laughed. 

“It does. Drink some water and try to sleep. I can stay for a bit, or I can just leave. I think I should head out, because being around people too much is what overloaded you in the first place. You need anything before I go?” he said, putting his jacket on.

“Um, just…” Keith said, looking at the floor, and Shiro’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Just what?” Keith looked up at him.

“Thank you, Takashi. Thank you so much.” Shiro smiled, his eyes soft.

“You’re welcome, buddy.” He closed the door gently on his way out.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance was eating dinner with Chau. They tried to eat together at least twice a week, and for the most part it was pretty doable. They were in Chau’s apartment eating shitty takeout from a cheap Chinese food place down the street. The lo mein was so greasy Lance could hardly look at it, but it was one of Chau’s favorites. He winced internally and tried not to say anything because he hated when people insulted foods he liked when he was in the middle of eating them. His phone pinged as he got a text and Chau shot him a curious look with noodles handing partially out of his mouth, which grew curiouser as he saw the surprise and relief that played across Lance’s face. Seeing Chau’s expression, he held up his phone.

“Oh, I just uh...Got a text I’d been waiting for.” He put his phone down.

“What about?” Chau asked.

“It’s more of a who than a what actually. Remember Keith? He wasn’t feeling well and had to leave work early. I told Shiro to text me and let me know if he got home okay and how he was feeling.” There was something in Chau’s face that Lance couldn’t read, but he didn’t want to ask about it.

“Oh! I have to let Raúl know he’s okay, too. I promised him. Sorry. We can start that movie in a second. Just let me…” He trailed off as he typed the text message.

“Who’s Raúl?”

“Keith’s coworker. He wanted me to let him know how Keith was doing.”

“Why’s everybody so worried about what Keith is doing? Why can’t Keith text Raúl himself?” Lance shrugged. “He probably could, but we’re not asking him to. I think he’s asleep right now anyways. Why’s it matter?” Chau seemed like he was in a bad mood, and Lance wasn’t liking how this was going. 

“It doesn’t. Forget I said anything.” Chau said, crossing his arms, but then a minute later he was talking again. “It’s just like, if I was hanging out with my boyfriend, I wouldn’t be texting a thousand other guys about another guy.”

“Um? I’ve texted two guys. And one of them is Shiro, who I’ve known for a long ass time. I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you, actually. And the other is Raúl, who I agreed to text because he wanted to know how his coworker was doing. Chill out. Are you gonna be like this? Because I’ll leave. I have no problem doing that.”

“So you’d rather leave than just apologize? That’s mature.”

“Are you fucking serious? No, I won’t apologize for texting my friends. I think you’re being seriously irrational right now. I'm gonna head home. Text me if you decide to stop being an asshole.” Lance said, pulling on his jacket and grabbing his phone. He had a hard time not slamming the door behind him. What the hell was Chau’s problem? Just because he was texting guys didn’t mean he was flirting with them, and even though Lance loved to fuck around and jokingly flirt with people, he’d never cheat on someone. Screw him for wanting to check on his friend, right? He drove home feeling pissed and decided, what the hell, it was only like 9 pm. Maybe Keith would be up. He got his number from Shiro and texted him.

“You okay, dude? You had us all worried back there”, texted Lance, and the reply came faster than he thought it would.

“Who is this?” Oops.

“Sorry, I forgot to say. It’s Lance.”

“Oh, hey. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay now. I'm just in my apartment watching the Food Network.”

“Woah, sounds like a wild night.” Sitting on his bed, Keith smiled at his phone.

“I, too, live dangerously.” he texted back.

“Dude, are you watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? That show is my shit. I love the way Guy Fieri just [clenches fist] takes you on a trip to Flavortown.”

“Yeah, it’s been on for like an hour and a half. Something about him really pisses me off but I can’t figure out what it is. He reminds me of you.”

“I’d take offense but lucky for you, I idolize the guy. Hey, are you hungry?”

“A little. Why?”

“I don’t know. I got interrupted during dinner earlier and didn’t get to finish it, and I'm hungry too. I think I'm gonna run out and get something to eat. You want anything?” He didn’t elaborate on exactly why he couldn’t finish it, and he hoped Keith wouldn’t ask.

“What? And like, bring it here?”

“Why not? I mean, if you want anything that is.” He hoped he didn’t sound pushy.

“Well I feel kinda bad about it. I’ll pay you back when you get here. Where were you planning on going?”

“No, don’t feel bad. I totally offered, my guy. This is on me. I'm going to Taco Bell but you can get whatever.” Keith texts him back an order and he feels good. He pockets his phone and grabs his wallet and heads to his car.

Once he’s gotten the food, he drives over to Keith’s apartment using his GPS and the address Keith has texted him.’

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

He knocked gently on the door which was hard as shit because he was carrying like, an abysmal amount of fast food, and he only had two hands, but Keith came to the door quickly and helped him out, taking a drink and one of the bags.

“Hey,” he greeted, and his hair was out of the ponytail. He was wearing pajamas. He looked sleepy and cozy and cute, comfortable in familiar territory, in his own home. Feeling Keith’s own comfort settle over him in waves, Lance began to feel comfortable too. Lance always picked up on that, the energy of places, of people. 

“Hey. So, I got your food,” he said, pawing through the plastic bag for Keith’s order.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Zero dollars and zero cents.” Keith gave him a look.

“C’mon, be serious.” He took his wallet off of his nightstand and started to open it.

“I am being serious. You owe me nothing. It’s on me.”

“Not you, too.” Keith groaned. “Shiro never lets me pay for anything. I work for a reason. Dude, take my money.” he took out a ten and started shaking it around. Lance laughed.

“No! I don’t need your charity!”

“What are you talking about? You’re trying to give me free food!”

“Damn! Give me a dollar and be done with it.” Figuring that that was the best he was going to get from Lance, Keith pulled out a dollar and gave it to him. Lance smirked. 

“There, paid in full. Eat your food before it gets cold, you nerd. Once fries get cold, they’re just never the same again.” There was a beat, Lance unsure what to do. If he should go or stay. “So uh, yeah.” he said, not looking at Keith. “I’ll see you around.”

“Wait.” Lance looked at Keith and tried not to appear hopeful.

“Yes?”

“Thank you for the food and everything. You didn’t have to do that, but that wasn’t what I was gonna say. Uh, that show is still on...Would you wanna maybe watch it with me? I’d hate to make you get me food and then just kick you out.” Keith looked around at the laundry wasteland that was his bedroom.

“Uh. I know this isn’t really...the nicest apartment or super clean or anything. Shiro calls me a garbage goblin.” he frowned at that. It was cute. “But if you’d wanna-”

“Why not?” Lance asked, smiling. He took off his shoes. “I have nowhere to be. Got my homework done earlier. You okay with me sitting on your bed or you’d prefer I sit on the floor?” 

“I wouldn’t make you sit on the floor. There’s spiders down there.” Lance looked around himself suddenly, panicked. Keith laughed. 

“No, there’s only one spider in here. In the corner. Look,” He pointed to the top right corner of the room. “That’s Patrice. She never moves so don’t worry. Anyway, yeah go ahead. Sit here.” He patted a spot next to him, and Lance sat accordingly. Keith’s bed was firmer than his dorm mattress and although Lance was partial to soft things (cotton, fleece, Hunk…) he actually liked it a lot. He noted as he sat beside him that Keith’s body exuded a subtle warmth, and he was easy to be around. He looked at his phone. He hadn’t gotten a text from Chau since he left. 

“What the fuck.” Keith said, more of a statement than a question. It got Lance’s attention. “That hamburger is fucking three feet tall.” He stared at the screen with a mix of fascination and disgust. “Why must we play God?” He whispered.

“I mean, if someone wants to eat three feet of beef, I say let them.”

“That is an obscene amount of beef. My arteries are clogging just from looking at it. My chest is tight.”

“Hm. Sounds like you need to go on a trip to Flavortown.”

“I’ll kick you out right now.” Keith said, completely serious.

“You so would not. They fucked up your order and I had to go around a second time. Let that guilt consume you.” Keith grumbled.

“Fine.” Lance smiled too big, caught himself. He relaxed a little and scooted a little closer to Keith. His phone pinged, and Chau’s name lit up the screen. He sighed.

“What’s up?” Keith asked, and Lance was frowning at his phone.

“Sorry about earlier. Wanna try again tomorrow, babe? I overreacted.” The text read. Part of him was still pissed off at Chau and the other half wanted very much to pretend the whole thing never happened.

“Boyfriend stuff.” he said, like it was irrelevant. He didn’t reply, just left the read receipts on so that Chau would know he had seen it. 

“You know,” Keith said, turning to look at Lance. “Chau can’t love you the way Guy Fieri can.” He didn’t even smile, his voice flat.

“I can’t tell whether or not you’re actually suggesting I leave Chau for Guy Fieri. I’m kind of convinced.” Keith laughed.

“What would you do if I poured my ice cold drink all over you right now?”

“I’d say ‘Damn, baby. That’s cold’ and then I’d be a little mad, but mostly I’d laugh because you’d have poured it on your own bed.”

“You’re impossible.” Keith groaned, but he was smiling.

“Are you just now realizing that?”

“No. Can we watch Ghost Adventures instead? I’m getting sick of watching Guy Fieri make random restaurant owners uncomfortable.”

“So you’d rather watch dead people make living men uncomfortable instead?”

“Yes.”

“Why is that?”

“I have an interest in the occult.” Keith said. Lance waited.

“Keith.”

“Zak Bagans is hot, and I’m a weak man.”

“I knew it.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day Keith kept smiling to himself and Shiro was pretty damn good at reading him, if he did say so himself, so he just had to ask.

“Is someone happy?” he asked, smiling. His voice had a bit of a teasing quality to it, and Keith looked away from him.

“Not any more than usual.” he said quietly, but Shiro wouldn’t let him off the hook.

“No! Explain. Every time I look at you, you’re smiling. I'm a little scared. Fill me in.”

“It’s nothing, really. Lance came over for a bit last night. We hung out. It was fun.” Shiro’s eyebrows practically hit the ceiling.

“Lance? Alone? He came over to your apartment?”

“Yeah. He randomly texted me last night and he ended up picking up some food for me, and then he came over and I just kinda...asked him if he wanted to hang out and watch some TV with me for a bit. That’s all.”

“And you had a good time?” Shiro asked, a little smug,

“Yeah. It was a lot of fun, actually. Although…”

“What?”

“I think he and Chau got in a fight? I don’t know what it was about and I might be wrong, but he was frowning at his phone and I think they got in some kind of an argument before he came over. He said he didn’t get to finish his dinner because he was interrupted. That was probably Chau’s fault.”

“Dammit. I knew this would happen.”

“No, I think it’ll be okay. Whatever happens, I mean. He didn’t seem too put out by it, whatever it was.” Shiro’s eyebrows furrowed but he forced himself to let it go.

“Okay. Well, what shows did you guys watch together?” He asked, and they talked as they walked.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so you'll notice this chapter is like...half the length of the other ones, and i'm so sorry about that! i know it's taken a long time for me to update this. i refuse to abandon it. school has been kicking my ass you guys. but i plan on working on the next chapter of this immediately. i just wanted to get the ball rolling and let everyone know i haven't forgotten about this. i'm sorry for the wait but i hope you enjoy this. if u wanna talk to me my tumblr is platonicsheith.tumblr.com !!

“Sometimes I wish Professor Iverson would just fuck off. Permanently.” Lance said, sighing as he flipped through his textbook.

“Isn’t that just...dying?” Pidge asked, pausing with her pencil a centimeter away from her paper.

“I mean...technically? Maybe. That’s not how I meant it though. I don’t wish death upon the man for Christ’s sake. Anyways, do you think I can finish this reading before his class?”

“Yeah, if you work hard.”

“Do you really mean it?” Lance said, looking up.

“No. A wise soul once told me that if you plan to do your homework in the morning, you’ve already lost.” Lance frowned. It was truly a dire situation. Pidge was most likely right, and the reading was quite long, but he had forgotten to do it last night and he had gone to bed way letter than usual. It was against his better judgement, but he also was pretty sure he didn’t have a better judgement, so he didn’t feel too bad about it. It had been for a good cause.

“Why were you up so late anyway?” Pidge asked, squinting at him. “You normally go to bed at 10 every night. You say you need your ‘beauty sleep’.” Lance sighed. There was no use lying to Pidge.

“I was texting.”

“Who? Chau?”

“Uh, not exactly? We’re kind of fighting right now. I was texting Keith actually.” if Pidge was surprised, she was trying hard not to show it. 

“Why are you and Chau fighting? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“He was just kinda generally being a dick last night? It was weird. I don’t know what brought it on. We were eating Chinese food and I was like ‘Hold up, I gotta send Raul a text’ About Keith, you know? He asked me to keep him updated, and Chau got super defensive and jealous. He was acting like I was flirting with a ton of other guys or something.” Pidge was nodding as she listened.

“No, I’m on your side. So what happened after that?”

“I left. Left my food there and everything. I couldn’t reason with him. so I texted Keith because I figured he might still be up and I wanted to know how he was doing, and he was... and I hadn’t finished my dinner so I asked if he wanted me to pick him up anything…” He trailed off, feeling guilty somehow.

“And then?”

“Well I brought him his food and came over, and we ended up watching TV together until like 11:30.”

“That’s really late, you know.” She sounded skeptical, and Lance couldn’t blame her. It probably sounded a little suspicious to go over to another guy’s house and eat and watch TV with him while he had a boyfriend, but he hung out with Hunk like that all the time and he didn’t really see how that was any different. Hunk liked boys, too, but they were just friends.

“I know.” He could feel the judgement. Maybe it was more like concern, but his own internal guilt was coloring it differently.

“And then you stayed up texting him? You don’t think that you’re like..going to cheat on Chau or anything, right? That’d be pretty shitty of you.”

“No! I still like Chau. He just pissed me off last night. We’ll sort it out. I don’t even like Keith like that.” 

In her head, Pidge thought “famous last words” but externally, she nodded.

“And how is that whole making amends thing going?”

“Uh. I left him on read.”

“Lance.”

“Last night. and I haven’t texted him since.”

“Get to it, McClain.”

“I know.”

“Okay, then. Good luck okay? You can talk to me about it if you want to.”

“Thanks, Pidge. I don’t think that will be necessary. Or at least, I hope it won’t be. I’ll have to see how Chau’s acting. Oh hey, you want to come to a sleepover at my place this weekend?”

“Dammit. I can’t come. I have a lot of work to do this weekend. Honestly, I procrastinated a little and it fucked me over in the long run.”

“Aw, man. That’s okay. There’ll be other sleepovers. I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines.”  
“Thanks, Lance. If you don’t see me on Monday it’s because I died. My body was crushed by mountains of homework. Have them bury me somewhere woodsy.” Pidge gathered up her books in her arms and started to walk away, her voice growing quieter as the distance between them grew.

“Ever the optimist, I see.” He smiled fondly. With Pidge gone, he turned to his phone. He still had not replied to Chau. It was weird how quickly he had gotten used to just not texting him at all. Before their fight, he would text him practically all day long, sometimes stretching into late hours and giving up precious beauty sleep. His recent emojis were still the ones he had used most often in texts with Chau, but it felt foreign now. He hadn’t even had the urge to text Chau all day, which just intensified the feeling he had that something had changed between them, that Chau had revealed a part of himself and Lance was unable to unsee it. Sighing loudly, he tapped on Chau’s name, and began to type a shitty response. It was nothing magnificent or noteworthy, but it was a response nonetheless.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“A hot dog is not a fucking sandwich, Shiro.” They were eating together and the conversation had took a heated turn. Keith slammed his hand down on the table and it made the chocolate milk in his cup slosh around uneasily, almost spilling.

“No. Think about it. It’s meat sandwiched, yes pun intended, between two sides of a bun. It’s meat between bread. It’s a sandwich.”

“If you say that one more time I’m walking home.”

“Do it! Walk away because you know I’m right.”

“I'll have you know I'm gonna stay. But not because I agree with you. Because I left my phone charger in your car.” 

“Classic.”

“I don’t wanna hear it.” Shiro laughed.

“Have you talked to Lance today?” Keith shook his head.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well I just saw him last night, right? Why not give him some breathing room?”

“Mm. So you’re not texting him because you don’t want to bother him. But you want to text him.”

“Stop that.” He chucked one of his goldfish at Shiro’s face. Shiro opened his mouth to catch it, but it hit him in the cheek instead.

“Just making some observations.”

“You do know we’re just friends, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Lance is in a relationship and you would never try to mess that up for him.” In his head, Shiro thought to himself that maybe Keith wouldn’t have to. Chau seemed to be doing a great job of that on his own.

“Okay, glad we’re on the same page. So what are you up to?”

“Matt called me up and said he wanted to hang out this weekend. I said yes because I haven’t really gotten to see him in a while. Allura might tag along. We’re still coordinating it. You have any plans?”

“As of now, my plans consist of laying in my bed and going on my phone. Maybe I'll marathon some Paranormal Witness. But that sounds fun! I hope you guys have a good time.”

“Thanks, I hope so too,” Shiro smiled. “And Paranormal Witness?” He said it almost accusatorily.

“Are you off of your Ghost Adventures kick? Are you cheating on Zak Bagans?”

“You can’t really cheat on someone if you were never dating them in the first place...” Keith started to twist the ends of his hair in his fingers, staring at the floor.

“Did that hurt to say?”

“Yeah, a little. I just…”

“I know. He has that big beautiful nose, and he hunts ghosts for a living. I get it.”

“Don’t act like you don’t love ghosts just as much as I do.”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“Okay. Keep saying that, like you didn’t invite me over one day and go ‘Keith, you have to see this’ and make me watch Ghost Hunters and Ancient Aliens with you...Oh, that’s right. You’re bigger on aliens, huh?”

“I know they’re out there.”

“Well, of course. They have to be. It’s ignorant to think they aren’t.”

“How come every conversation we have cycles back to some form of paranormal and/or extraterrestrial activity? Literally every single one. I think we’re scaring my parents.” Keith shrugged.

“That’s just who we are I guess, but don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. I know you’re supposed to be the responsible one.”

“I'm not supposed to be the responsible one; I am the responsible one.”

“Yesterday you left your phone on top of your car and almost drove off with it like that.”

“Minor details…”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance knew that his abuelita was not a mean woman, that she had instead become jaded and bitter as the world had betrayed her. In what ways exactly, he never was sure. Sometimes he wanted to ask “Abuelita, just what did the world do to you?” but he thought better of it. He let her tsk and chide and wave her finger. She was nice where it counted, after all.

People assumed that, being Latina, she would also be a raving Catholic, and thus would greatly disapprove of his sexuality. But while Lance had never “come out” officially, he had made comments here and there that had revealed his attraction to men and not once had his abuelita glared at him or reprimanded him. It was a nonevent, like discussing the weather, and then his abuelita was saying:

“Please bring home a handsome boy. Your sister’s boyfriend is hideous. How can I live knowing that my granddaughter is dating someone like that? Put my old heart at rest, flaco.” Lance laughed for two reasons. One, because Hector, his sister’s boyfriend, had few redeeming qualities if any. He wasn’t funny, attractive, or a particularly good or intelligent person, and he could empathize with his grandma. She facepalmed every time Hector entered the room. Two, he laughed because he had clearly inherited his abuelita’s need for dramatics. 

“Abuelita, you are not that old.”

“Ay, but I feel that old.” She sighed, looking away. They were sitting on a hill near their house. His abuelita was only 63; a tiny woman. She was fragile and needed Lance’s help going up and down the hill, which was such a contrast to her tough personality that it was almost laughable. Yet her small stature did not make her any less credible when she threatened him or any other member of the family, and they all feared her. All five feet of her.

“Te quiero, abuelita.” he said, her hand in his as he helped her down the last few steps of the hill.

“I love you, too.” she said. “Eres mi tesoro.” Lance felt a wave of emotion coming right for him, tried to fight it, but then he caught his abuelita’s eye.

“There’s nothing wrong with crying, Lance. You know that.” And she said Lance in a different way than his friends or even his mom. With the tall ah sound, and quick. She said his American name like it was Spanish. She was stubborn like that. 

“You should see what that mentality did to your abuelo. He never cries because his parents always told him ‘Oh, hombres no deben llorar. Eres un hombre? Me parece que eres una mujer’ He makes himself sick holding it in like that. Don’t be like him.” and Lance nodded his head, tears already sliding down his cheeks. The boys on the playground had called him a crybaby when he was younger. They had laughed. His mother always picked him up, patted his wet cheek.

“Later in life this openness will help you, mijo.” He had been too young to understand what she meant, but it calmed him all the same. His mother’s embrace, the smell of this particular perfume she had worn for decades that he could never remember the name of, her weathered laugh. 

So it felt good to know he was coming home for the weekend.

Had it been long since college had began and he’d left? Not by most people’s standards. But Lance was so connected to his family that any amount of time felt like an entire lifespan, and texting was insufficient. He missed his siblings and the constant feeling of things happening around him; not in a stressful way, but in a ‘my-house-is-very-much-lived-in’ way. He missed catching his little sister Gina in his arms as she came running around the corner. His brother Guillermo was not as rambunctious, but he was slightly older than Gina, her senior of three years. With Guillermo he played video games and with Gina he play-fought and chased her. Sometimes when Gina laughed in his arms, he made eye contact with his mother and she smiled.

“You are a good brother, Lance.” And somehow that just made his heart swell, was all he could think about until Gina tugged on his sleeve and brought his attention back to her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keith’s phone buzzed at 10 pm.

“So...wanna have a sleepover?”

“What.”

“A sleepover! Y’know, you get together with a friend or a couple of friends and you hang out and spend the night together. It’ll be fun. Who says adults can’t have sleepovers?”

“We’re hardly adults. We’re only 18.”

“Even more of a reason to have one, then! It’ll be at my place. It’s big enough.”

“Isn’t ‘your place’ a dorm room?”

“Oh, I see what you mean. No, I live pretty close to this area and I have a pretty big house. Hunk will be there, too. He might bring his girlfriends, but don’t worry. They’re nice. Well...Shay is nice. Nyma’s kind of a wild card. She won’t hurt you. I don’t know if they’ll be able to stay the night though. Pidge is busy so she can’t come. Her courses are very rigorous.”

“I see. Is Chau coming?”

“No!” He replied too quickly. “He’s busy with homework, too. I already asked.”

“Okay. Let me tell Shiro.”

“He doesn’t have to give you a ride. I can drive you.”

“Thank you, but he likes to know my whereabouts anyways. He worries. If he could track me like a UPS package he would.”

“Well they have microchips for that.”

“Shut up. Don’t give him any ideas.”

“Keith. I highly doubt that Shiro would stick a microchip inside of you.”

“Considering he believes hot dogs are sandwiches, there’s no telling what he might do.”

“They are sandwiches, though...”

“You know what? Fuck you guys. I'm not coming.”

“Keith. Keith don’t you dare leave me on read. That’s only okay when I do it.”

“Okay, fine. When is the sleepover?” There was a childlike giddiness he wasn’t familiar with that he felt in his chest, but it was a nice feeling all the same. It was nice to look forward to something.

“This weekend!!”

“Okay. I don’t have any other plans.” Keith found it funny that he had to text that, as though he might have plans any other time. He was hardly a busy guy.

“Yes!! Okay. I'll pick you up Friday at like...6:30?”

“AM or PM?”

“Dude. PM.”

“Just checking. Sounds good.”

“This is gonna be so fun. There’s gonna be good food and movies and you’ll get to meet my family. They’re super nice so don’t worry. They’re not gonna like quiz you or anything. They trust my judgement...most of the time.” Cue anxious thoughts. New people. But at least Lance had told him a bit in advance. He could adjust, come up with a mental plan. Some conversation starters. He could work it into his plan. Thank god he knew before going over there.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I look forward to it.” He tossed his phone to his left, then picked it up again, scrolling for Shiro’s name in his contacts. He pressed call.

“Hey, Shiro?” he said once Shiro picked up.

“Hey, buddy. Something wrong?”

“Uh, well no. Lance invited me to a sleepover this week-”

“A sleepover? That’s so cute. That sounds like fun.”

“But it’s at his house. His family will be there. What if they hate me?”

“Keith. You thought my family was going to hate you too, and look what happened there. My mom is down for one of your emergency contacts on your school forms. I know I can’t stop you from worrying but just think about that. I have a feeling it’ll go really well and you’ll feel silly for having ever worried.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Usually am.”

“Thank you, Shiro. Sorry for calling. It’s sort of late.”

“It’s fine. If it wasn’t okay, then I wouldn’t pick up. or I’d text you instead.” Keith pressed his lips together.

“Okay…” he said weakly. He felt a headache coming on. 

“Hey. Stop that.” Shiro said, grabbing his attention. Keith looked around the room. How the fuck did he do that.

“I can practically feel you sulking over the line. Don’t feel guilty. Besides, I was already up. You have a fun weekend to look forward to! You’re going to be with your friends. I know you’ll have a great time.” Keith, moving his mouth away from the phone, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. 

“Okay. Okay, Shiro. You’re right. I hope you have a really fun weekend, too. You deserve it.

“So do you! Let’s both have a great time and tell each other about it on Monday. You can obviously talk to me this weekend, I just might respond slower than usual.”

“Got it. Thanks again. You’re the best.”

“Can I have that in writing? Goodnight, Keith.” 

“‘Night,” He said, ending the call. Laying down, he thought about meeting Hunk’s girlfriends and spending the weekend with Hunk and Lance. He thought about how funny and charming Lance had been when he came over, and he fell asleep thinking about that, about fast food and a funny boy sitting next to him.


	4. Chapter 4

Sitting across from each other, the tension in the room was tangible. Lance had agreed to come over and try to make things right with Chau. Sitting on Chau’s stained couch, with his hands folded in his lap, he didn’t know what to say. 

 

“Look, baby.” it was a familiar warmth gone sour. He used to love when Chau would call him that.

 

“I’m sorry about the other day, okay? You kept saying all these different guy’s names and I got worried, okay? I don’t wanna lose you. I don’t like you texting all those different guys.”

 

“I text Hunk all the time, always have. You’ve never said anything about that.”

 

“Well, I don’t like you texting him either. I f I had it my way, you’d only text me. You like girls too, so I don’t want you texting them either.”

 

“Oh, yeah? So because I’m bisexual you’re just going to assume I can’t be trusted with anybody? I have standards, Chau. I have fucking morals, and I would never cheat on you. I’ve never cheated on anybody. That’s not who I am. I thought you’d know that.” Chau bit his cheek, avoided eye contact. 

 

“Somebody sounds mad,” he said, teasing him.

 

“I  _ am _ mad! It's like everyday you’re showing me these parts of you that I’ve never seen before, and I don’t like them. Is this just...you? Is this who you are? Because if that’s the case I'm not sure I want to date you anymore.”

 

“Are you fucking kidding me? We have a good thing going.”

 

“Not if you think I’d cheat on you, we don’t. Relationships are built on trust. Or they’re supposed to be, anyway.”

 

“Yeah, well. People say they won’t cheat all the time, and then they do. They think they’ll never do it and then they just give into the temptation. It's easy to do.” Lance narrowed his eyes. There was something about the way Chau was talking, the way he was describing it.

 

“What makes you say that?” He asked, voice clipped. “Have you ever cheated on someone?”

 

“Why would you even ask me that?”

 

“You brought it up. Not me.” Chau was silent for a second, and then he spit out a reply.

 

“People make mistakes.” 

 

“So that’s a yes, then. Was it me? Did you cheat on me? You look awfully guilty right now.”

 

“What if I say yes? What then, huh? Are you going to cry?”

 

“It’s not worth it. You’re not that special.”

 

“I did. It was a one time thing. It didn’t mean anything.”

 

“Apparently our relationship didn’t mean anything either.” Lance laughed. It was bitter, ugly.

 

“Don’t be like that. You know I care about you. I wouldn’t have apologized if I didn’t.”

 

“Some apology this is! You invite me over just so I can find out you’ve cheated on me. You can’t possibly think this seems sincere. It's over.” Chau sneered, face suddenly so ugly. Lance could not understand how he had ever liked him, ever found him attractive. He had felt this way for days, but Chau’s words solidified the feeling.

 

“Oh, I bet this is great news for you. You can go around and fuck all those guys you keep texting. That Keith guy? I can see why you guys all like him. He’d be pretty hot if he actually tried.” Lance couldn’t help the way anger bubbled up in him at that. Tears of frustration threatened to slide down his cheeks and even if his abuelita said it was okay to cry this wasn’t the time. He wouldn’t let Chau have the satisfaction. He swallowed hard. He was offended for himself, he was offended on Keith’s behalf, and he was furious.

 

“We don’t like him because he’s ‘hot’ or something. We like him because he’s a genuinely nice and good person. And he does try. He tries harder than all of us. He’s better than you, that’s for sure. Although you set the bar pretty damn low.” His voice was venomous. Chau laughed.

 

“Is that what this is about? You wanna leave me for some weird kid who has trouble talking to people? You’re not upset. You just want an excuse.”

 

“Hey, fuck you Chau. I wanna end it because you’re a fucking asshole. Keith has nothing to do with this. You’re just giving me more reasons to break up with you. Wanna keep going? Wanna give me another one?”

 

“Fuck you, too. Always making me out to be some kind of bad person. Shit. This is your fault. I let you talk to Hunk, to Shiro, now to this Keith guy, to that Ralph guy...You’re talking to all these other guys and I'm the one in the wrong?”

 

“First of all, I didn’t sleep with any of them. I didn’t cheat on you, because I'm not a piece of shit. Second of all, let’s get one thing straight. You don’t _ let _ me talk to anyone. Everything I do, I do because I want to do it. you don’t  _ let  _ me do anything. I don’t ask for your permission before I do things because I don’t need it. I never have, and considering I'm breaking up with you now, I'm never going to. Do me a favor and lose my number.” He got up just like he had the other day, when he left his food on the coffee table that Chau had in front of his couch, and walked out of Chau’s life for good. 

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Lance picked up Keith, who was jittery with nerves, right on time. He was shaking a little, already imagining how stimulating a sleepover with more than three people would be and the fact that he’d be meeting two new people; Hunk’s girlfriends. They sounded nice and all but  _ what if they didn’t like him?  _ Lance’s smiles were smaller than usual, his laughs subdued, but he kept looking over at Keith and smiling anyway. He was a good driver, steady and calm, his shoulders relaxed. Briefly Keith found him handsome before he shook off the thought. He always thought people looked attractive while driving. Maybe it was the sureness, the control. He could never be sure. Lance’s car did not have any air fresheners or strong smells and Keith was thankful because those always gave him nasty headaches. Shiro had long ago vowed to never keep any strongly scented things in his car and Keith couldn’t help but feel bad about it because it was Shiro’s car, but Shiro didn’t mind.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Okay but if I knew I could prevent a headache that I would otherwise be causing, why wouldn’t I take that opportunity?”

 

“It’s your car, though. It’s already nice of you to even drive me places.”

 

“...Anyways. I'm throwing this black ice air freshener into the trash real quick. Get in the passenger seat. We’re going to Arby’s.”

 

“Didn’t Matt say Mothman sucked his dick there once? Wait, don’t distract me with food. Shiro. Come back.” He heard the swish of the air freshener hitting the bag inside the trash can and sighed. Shiro came back in with furrowed eyebrows.

 

“Matt...says a lot of things. He does this thing where he goes on Reddit forums and tries to work the top comments into conversations with me. I always know.”

 

“What gives him away?”

 

“Matt’s not that clever.”

 

“...Matt has an encyclopedic knowledge of Jupiter and helps run the family restaurant.”

 

“You got me there.”

 

“Jupiter is really cool, Shiro.” Keith said, as he got into the passenger seat.

 

“So are curly fries. Buckle up.”

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Thanks for picking me up,” Keith said, shyly. He really needed to get his license. He felt bad constantly having to ask for rides.

 

“No problem! You’re a nice passenger. Pidge always takes the AUX cord without asking and bumps Nicki Minaj. Do I really care? No, but it’s the thought that counts.” Keith smiled, unsure how to reply.

 

“I bet you’re excited to see your family, huh?” he asked, changing the subject. Lance’s face lit up.

 

“Oh, yeah!” Lance said, almost swerving. “Oh, my grandma’ll like you.” He laughed to himself. “She’s a tough lady. and my mom gives such good hugs. I don’t know if you’re into those, but if you are you’re in for a treat. Gina might want to braid your hair but we won’t be walking around the house for too long, and she won’t touch you if you tell her not to. They’re good kids. Guillermo is older and quieter. He’s sweet.” Keith took a deep breath, his hands in his lap. He took in the information, prepared himself.

 

“I look forward to it, then. Do you have a dad?”

 

“Sort of. He’s not living with us but he visits a lot...Takes the kids on the weekends sometimes, pays my mom...They don’t hate each other. They’re just better as friends, I guess.”

 

“I can respect that. I don’t know if I’d like to be married. I’d be an awful husband.” Lance huffed a laugh.

 

“Stop. I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to get married, but I think if you did...You’d be a great husband and anyone would be lucky to have you.”

 

“That is such a friend response. I really would be a shitty husband. I hog my bed and I forget to wash my own dishes. We’d be divorced in a week and a half. The additional half week is me being optimistic.”

 

“Oh, stop. Hey! My house is right down this street. We’ll be there soon. I think Hunk, Shay, and Nyma are on their way. But that’s good. That’ll make this whole meeting my family thing a lot less painful if I'm introducing just you first. My grandma can deal with the shock of Hunk having two happy girlfriends who know about each other later.”

 

“Oh, yeah. I wonder how she’ll react to that.”

 

“She’ll frown, and then she’ll think about it later while eating a tortilla with peanut butter on it in the dark, and she’ll be fine with it. She’s a cool lady, she just needs time to process stuff.”

 

“I can relate,” Keith laughed. The car pulled neatly into the driveway and Lance took a deep breath. He rubbed his hands together and looked at Keith with a shy smile.

 

“Here goes!” They got out of the car and hearing the car doors slam shut, Gina ran out excitedly to greet them with Guillermo trailing reluctantly behind her. He was smiling all the same, but his love was quieter.

 

“You’re home!” She shouted, barreling into him. She was much shorter than Lance but she almost knocked him over with the force of her hug. Lance bent down to pick her up properly and smiled.

 

“Gina! I’ve missed you so much. Guillermo, get over here. How are you, bud? Beat my high score yet?” Guillermo smiled. His teeth were sharp and a little crooked. His hair was darker than Lance’s, but his skin was a tad lighter. 

 

“Beat it? I’ve doubled it.” Lance set Gina down and hugged Guillermo. 

 

“You little punk. Can’t say I'm not proud though. Where’s Mama?”

 

“Where do you think? Cooking with abuelita. It’s like a restaurant in there. Mama has used every dish in the house. You might wanna leave early in the morning tomorrow so she doesn’t make you wash them.” Lance laughed, pure joy, and Keith knew his family was very important to him. As if suddenly remembering Keith’s presence, Lance halted mid-laugh. 

 

“Oh! You guys. this is Keith.” Keith waved shyly and gave a small smile. Gina made to give him what would’ve undoubtedly been a bone crushing hug but Lance held her back.

 

“Easy, Gina. He’s not super big on those.”

 

“She can hug me if she wants.” Keith shrugged. Gina smiled and Lance let her go. 

 

“Easy, Gina. Gentle.” he walked over to Keith and wrapped her small arms around his waist. Keith bent down to hug her back, and he was stiff, but she was happy anyway.

 

“Hi! I'm Gina. I'm Lance’s little sister. Guillermo is our brother, too. but,” She glanced at Guillermo briefly before whispering in Keith’s ear. “He’s  _ shy.”  _ Keith smiled.

 

“Hi, Guillermo. I get it. It’s nice to meet you.” Guillermo waved back and smiled, as if he had decided that Keith was not a threat. “Is Lance a nice big brother?” Keith asked, and Lance shot him an incredulous look, but then he was looking at his siblings again, awaiting their answer anxiously.

 

“The best!” Gina laughed. “Guillermo won’t admit it but he cried when Lance left. Sorry,” she said to Guillermo, who was looking away, and Lance looked briefly painstricken. 

 

“Mijo!” His mother’s voice came from the doorway. “All of you, come inside. Dinner will be done in 20 minutes. Come see your poor abuelita and give your mama a hug.” Lance looked in the direction of his mother with so much love and pent up excitement it made Keith’s heart break a little. He wondered what that could be like, being so dedicated to a family. To love them so much. 

 

“Mama! I missed you so much.” He kissed her on the cheek, and Keith noticed how he dwarfed his mother in height. She ran a hand over the back of his head and looked at him with so much love in her gaze that Keith felt he was intruding. 

 

“My beautiful son,” she said, mostly to herself. “I worry about you being away from home, but at least you have Pidge and Hunk. You’re not alone, and you seem to like it there, but I can’t help but worry.”

 

“I worry about you, too.” he said, almost too soft to hear, and then whipped his head around.

 

“Mama, this is my friend Keith. I mentioned him on the phone. I met him through Shiro. Hunk, Nyma, and Shay will be here soon.” Keith felt small when she turned her gaze on him, but he fought the urge to shrink in on himself. She smiled, looking suddenly younger, and walked over to him.

 

“I’s so nice to meet you, Keith. Please come in and make yourself at home. My home feels empty sometimes without Lance and his older brother. Be my son for the weekend.” she laughed, and Keith smiled. When she laughed, she looked like Lance. Her laugh was no subtle thing, loud and almost self-congratulatory, but most of all contagious. 

 

“It’s nice to meet you, too. Thanks for letting me come over.”

 

“Polite!” She said, and hit her shoulder lightly. “I like him. You have good taste in friends, Lance. First Hunk, and now this boy. You’re very welcome, honey.” she said to Keith, and Keith felt safe.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Well fed and with Hunk by his side, Keith was feeling a bit more comfortable in Lance’s home. It wasn’t the biggest house ever, but it was homey and lived in and he thought that was what mattered more anyway. Hunk seemed relaxed, as though he had been there many times before, and Keith supposed he had been. He got up and took things out of the fridge without even asking and no one even blinked. Guillermo seemed particularly happy about his arrival and Nyma and Shay sat on the other side of Keith, in a similar state of fullness and slight discomfort as they watched Hunk play-fight with Guillermo, whose shyness seemed numbed by Hunk’s presence, and Gina. Nyma laughed.

 

“Go get ‘em, baby!” She called, and Shay laughed beside her. Turning to Keith, she stuck out her hand.

 

“Hey. We haven’t talked much yet and since we’re going to be spending the night together, I think that should change.” She laughed. It was a light sound, and Keith liked it. “I'm Shay. This is Nyma,” she said gesturing to a blonde girl on her left. “It’s nice to meet you.” Keith shook her hand and then Nyma’s.

 

“Hey, I'm Keith. So you guys are Hunk’s girlfriends?” Shay nodded.

 

“Yup! We’ve been dating for a couple weeks now. He’s lovely.”

 

“It was just me and Shay for a while, but we were both smitten when we met him. I mean, the guy could make a car out of some napkins and a piece of gum probably. He’s so smart and nice. I was like ‘How are you single’?” Keith smiled.

 

“You guys are cute together. I'm glad it’s working out so well. To be honest, I haven’t known Hunk for very long but I know he’s a good guy. He helped me find my way around college on the first day. He’s...he’s got a good heart.” Shay looked at him gently and it seemed they all took a moment to consider what Keith had said.Then Lance and Hunk were bringing Guillermo upstairs because it was past his bedtime, with Gina trailing tiredly behind them. Moments passed and the two of them reappeared downstairs, grinning.

 

“Sleepover Phase 1 begins now y’all. We’re heading to my room. You guys wanna watch a movie?” Lance asked.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Hey guys. I think something bad is gonna happen.” Hunk whispered conspiratorially. Shay giggled beside him.

 

“Oh really? You think that the movie playing sad music and the fact that this scene is in slow motion is somehow hinting toward something bad happening?” Keith said.

 

“Hey, fuck off.” Lance said, laughing. He didn’t mean it. Hunk pouted. Shay smiled at him, cupped his chin and turned his face toward hers. She had big, warm hands, and she pecked him on the mouth..

 

“I think a man with intuition is sexy.” Nyma said, and cackled when Hunk got flustered. Keith smiled at the three of them.

 

“Hunk, you guys make a cute trio. I like this.” Lance said. Keith looked at him fondly.

 

“You like my girlfriends?” he laughed. “Good. They’re gonna be around for a while.”

 

“We better!” Nyma said. “You’d die without my Avril Lavigne playlist.”

 

“We absolutely would not. You play it too much. Whenever I see a middle part now I get hives. You have lavigned me to death.” Lance hid his hair in shame, and Shay laughed.

 

“No, not that. You have like...a baby middle part. That’s fine.” Hunk reassured him.

 

“Her playlist isn’t even that great! ‘Complicated’ is on it like three times.”

 

“Don’t act like you don’t love that song, kitten.”

 

“Don’t call me that in public.” Shay hissed. Nyma smiled, coy and satisfied. Lance high fived her, and her manicure was beautiful; black palm trees on a sunset gradient.

 

“What are the sleeping arrangements?” Nyma asked. “I promise I’m not tired yet. I just like to know what we’re doing.”

 

“Hm...Well I have a futon, a floor, and my bed. Two people can fit in my bed, but I’d like to be one of those people, if that’s okay with you guys. Infinite people can fit on the floor. I think two people can fit on the futon. It’s got this bar in the middle though...It’s killer on your back. I recommend the floor honestly. We have a ton of blankets so if we laid them down and you guys lay on them it’ll be fine. Thoughts?”

 

“The way you worded that made it sound like a math problem and now my head hurts a little.” Keith said.

 

“Floor sounds good. I brought a shit ton of blankets, too. we can make a pillow fort or some shit.”

 

“Nyma, we’re college students.”

 

“Yeah, and? I'm not dead inside like the other kids in your Computer Science classes.”

 

“Whatever,” Shay said. “Hunk?”

 

“Floor sounds good to me. You guys can lay on either side of me?”

 

“Love it,” Nyma said. 

 

“Keith, what about you? Futon or my bed? Or floor? There’s probably some room left over somewhere. But there’s that bar in the futon. So...bed or floor?”

 

“Uh..”

 

“Bed?” Hunk supplied. “His bed’s really big and comfortable. It’s a lot better than that futon. Trust me, I know what that bar is capable of, dude.”

 

“If I sleep in your bed won’t Chau be upset?” Lance hesitated, just for a second. He waved a hand dismissively and laughed.

 

“Don’t worry about that. It’s not like you’re planning to make out with me or something. It’s cool.” Lance’s words made Keith’s face feel hot and Nyma cackled.

 

“Don’t embarrass him,” Shay whispered into Nyma’s ear and Nyma nodded, still smiling.

 

“They’re cute,” she whispered back. 

 

“I know. Keith’s shy.”

 

“And you wouldn’t know anything about being shy, would you princess?”

 

“No. I wouldn’t.” Shay said firmly, but she was pouting. “You met me while I was performing at a local rock concert with the Balmerans. I am anything but shy. Remember how you kept whistling at me? Rax almost walked offstage and fought you mid-song.”

 

“So you have a protective older brother. I have a brother too, you know.”

 

“Rolo still doesn’t know my name and we’ve been together for a like a year and a half. The other day when I came in to see you, I startled him so he woke up from his nap and knocked over a cup of iced tea that was next to him. It spilled all over his face. and then he  _ didn’t clean it up  _ and he went back to sleep.”

 

“You guys know Rolo?” Keith asked.

 

“Yeah,” Nyma smiled. “That’s my brother. How do  _ you _ know him?”” Keith froze, unsure of whether or not Rolo was out to his family or friends, and whether or not he should tell the story.

“He uh...He came into the ice cream shop.” Nyma’s eyes narrowed as she watched Keith explain.

 

“He hit on you, didn’t he?” Keith’s eyes widened.

 

“Uh. Yeah, I’d say so. How’d you know?” Nyma laughed.

 

“Classic! I know my brother pretty well.” Lance had a strange expression on his face. He had forgotten that other people could talk to Keith too, could charm him and get to know him and like him. He had, however foolishly, briefly believed that Keith was his. 

 

“So you’re  _ both  _ gay?” He managed to ask after a minute, somewhat incredulous but very amused.

 

“Yeah! It’s hilarious. Rolo came out first because he’s older. When I came out you know what my mom said? ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ It was so funny. She doesn’t care, really. She just thought at least one of her kids would be straight. and we did not deliver on that front. So what’d Rolo say? Was it pretty subtle or did he basically proposition you?”

 

“Something in the middle? I dunno. I was putting whipped cream on a sundae and he was like ‘Oh, you’re good at that’” Keith scoffed. “As if it takes any skill, and then he said ‘I can think of a better use for that whipped cream’, and I was like ‘Uh…’ and he winked at me and took his sundae. He then tipped me, and slid me a Post-It note with his phone number on it. Except I didn’t see him write his number on it, which leads me to believe that he already had a pre-made Post-It with his cell phone number on it in case a situation like this came up.”

 

“You’re right! He keeps a few in his pocket. He’s lazy.” 

 

“Nyma, his Rolo impression is so good.” Shay laughed. She fist bumped Keith, and Lance cleared his throat and got everyone’s attention.

 

“So is anyone in this room straight?” Everyone exchanged looks and no one said anything. Lance smiled.

 

“ _ Nice.” _

 

“I don’t know,” Hunk said. “This seems dangerous. What if our combined gayness knocks the roof off your house?” Lance laughed.

 

“I don’t know, Mr. Engineering Major. Is that plausible?”

 

“Entirely so.” Keith smiled too big, and his cheeks ached.

 

“I don’t know if your professor would agree with that.”

 

“My professor is a lesbian. I think she’d totally agree with that.”

 

“Your space engineering professor is a lesbian? That’s awesome!” Lance said, excitedly.

 

“And she’s not white either.”

 

“Holy shit. I love our school.” 

 

“Wait!” Hunk said.

 

“What?”

 

“No one in here is white, either!”

 

“This...This is a blessed place.” Keith said, and they all shared collective gay laughter of color.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Let’s play twister.” Matt suggested.

  
  


“We don’t have that anymore. Not since the incident.” Allura shuddered. Shiro never knew what ‘the incident’ actually referred to, because every time he asked Allura, she shuddered the way she just had.

“You know what? Good. The last time I played that I almost broke my arm.” Matt said. Shiro held up his prosthetic arm.

 

“Oh no. What a nightmare.”

 

“Sorry. You know I bet that thing must get really cold, and that sucks, but they did a really good job with it. It looks really nice. Technology is amazing.”

 

“Yeah,” Shiro said, wiggling his fingers. “It’s pretty good. I'm thankful for that, at least. Whoever holds my hand is gonna be in for an unpleasant surprise if they’re looking for warmth though.”

 

“That’s why they make heat packs. I love science.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After a while, Keith noticed how Lance had begun to get lost in his own head. His eyes looked sad and thoughtful and he had stopped talking as much, had stopped listening to the conversations around him, and Keith was having a good time, but he felt bad for enjoying himself while Lance looked so visibly upset. He nudged Hunk, who turned around.

 

“I think Lance gets a little hurt by our jokes sometimes. I feel bad. He looks bummed.” Keith said. Hunk looked thoughtful.

 

“Hm. Well he hasn’t said anything about it in the group chat...Oh, wait. I should explain. Our group has a system and well, you’re in the group now, so it’s really good that I'm explaining this. So if someone says something that hurts someone else’s feelings, that person has to speak up. They bring it up in the groupchat so it’s not awkward in person or we don’t have to bring it up in front of everyone, and we will apologize and talk about it, because that’s what friends do. We decided that because none of us can read minds, and none of us want to hurt our friends, the best solution was to have an open complaint policy. Like if Lance makes a snippy comment about your hair? Groupchat that shit.” Keith nodded.

 

“Well that seems like a pretty good plan. It does seem like if Lance had a problem with us, he’d bring it up...It must be something else bothering him. I’ll talk to him about it. Can you add me to the groupchat? I wanna say hi to Pidge.” Hunk smiled.

 

“Sure thing!” Hunk got Keith’s number and added him into the chat where Keith saw that a steady stream of memes and reaction pictures had been send over the last few days. He whistled.

 

“Damn. You guys love memes.” Hunk chuckled.

 

“You have no idea.”

 

Taking his phone back from Hunk, Keith sent a message to the groupchat and was met with a speedy response.

 

“What’s your favorite cryptid?” It was a good opening sentence. He knew Pidge was into that stuff, too. 

 

“Wow, that’s a tough one.” Pidge typed back. “I think it’s a tie between the Fresno alien, and my will to live.”

 

“How is that second one a cryptid?”

 

“Elusive, not confirmed to exist by science…”

 

“Fair enough.” Keith said, and then paused before typing again. “...I like Mothman.”

 

“Typical. Your kind always does.”

 

“What the hell does that mean?”

 

“You sound awfully defensive.”

 

“I'm going to tell Matt you’re insulting me.”

 

“He’ll take my side!  He’s my brother.”

 

“That’s what you think...but I have a coupon for Olive Garden.”

 

“Fuck. Fuck, okay yeah. My brother would sell me out for some breadsticks. You win this round and only this round.”

 

“Pleasure talking to you, Pidge.”

 

“Same with you, mullet boy. Have fun!”

 

“You too!” He typed back, and then, pocketing his phone, went to Lance’s side, feeling as though it was time for him to ask Lance what was wrong.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“I am fundamentally against socks. Little cotton prisons.” They heard Allura’s Uncle Coran say, tsking. The phone call was on speaker, at Matt’s insistence. Hearing her uncle’s commentary never failed to make him laugh.

 

“I know you are, Uncle. But I had to pack them. It gets cold out here.” 

 

“Hmph, fine. But make sure neither of those boys tries anything. If they do, I’ll have to give them a little of this!” They heard grunting noises and assorted bangs and other sound effects, and Allura sighed.

 

“They won’t, Uncle. It was nice talking to you.”

 

“I love you, Allura! Please be safe, princess! You’re my world.”

 

“Princess?” Shiro asked, his eyebrow raised. 

 

“It’s a nickname,” Allura explained.

 

“Allura. your uncle is weird.” Matt said, adjusting his glasses before crossing his arms. “Like, just super out there. I love him.”

 

“Don’t you think I know that? I grew up with him. He’s so much fun, though. When we go out in public we like to make up British slang and confuse everyone in the store.” She cleared her throat.

 

“Uncle, the momsy-popple werben-schmeister is broken.”

 

“That’s genius.”

 

“Matt! Don’t encourage her. That’s evil.”

 

“Do people ever fall for it? Like think you’re serious?”

 

“Yes! You Americans...It has a 99% success rate. That 1% is because other Brits might be in the area, but they usually play along. It’s great fun.”

 

“I wish Keith spoke Japanese so we could do that.” Shiro sighed. He said it as casually as he could, but both Matt and Allura knew the meaning there.

 

“Teach him, dude.”

 

“I want to, but it’s like...a commitment. Maybe we can start out really simple?”

 

“Yeah like...the basics. Stuff everyone knows.”

 

“Don’t tell your mom that you’re teaching him. That way not only can you surprise her but Keith won’t have to deal with that.”

 

“My mother does get rather...excitable. He’s like the second son she’s always wanted.” Shiro said, and smiled a little.

 

“lmao.”   
  


“Don’t say lmao out loud. What the fuck, Matt. This is a real life conversation. What’s next? You’re gonna start shouting eggplant emoji? I don’t fucking think so.”

 

“This is the land of the free, Allura.”

 

“I'll break your fucking glasses, Matt. You won’t be able to see shit. Turn off the fucking airhorn! Jesus. That’s not even funny anymore. It’s so old.” Matt stopped pressing the button on his phone only to stop and shoot Allura an evil and very pleased look.

 

“Do you hate old people, Allura? How transparent of you.” 

 

“Shiro, make him stop.” Allura said, tiredly.

 

“Allura, do your breathing exercises. Matt...stop doing things that make Allura need to do her breathing exercises.” Matt put his phone away, and slung an around around Shiro.

 

“Hey, you ever notice you like...automatically take charge in a group? Why do you think that is?”

 

“I'm not sure.”

 

“Only child syndrome?” Allura guessed.

 

“Do you think the people around you are incapable?” Matt asked.

 

“No? I don’t think so. Plus that would make me a bad leader. A good leader needs to believe in their teammates and encourage them to do their best.”

 

“Do you...read books on leadership?”

 

“In my downtime, yeah. They’re interesting.”

 

“Holy shit.” Matt said breathlessly. “You should run for president.”

 

“I appreciate the sentiment but I would rather eat a jar of mayonnaise with a spoon than be responsible for the fate of America.” 

 

“Well, you have to be in charge of something...Maybe you should have a baby. You know, be the dad you were always meant to be.”

 

“I’m a bit young for that, and babies need a lot of attention and care.”. Matt thought for a moment.

 

“You can adopt adults, I think. I googled it once.” 

 

“Adopt Keith!” Allura gasped, as if she had just had a revelation.

 

“Would they let me adopt him if we’re only two years apart? That seems unlikely.”

 

“You didn’t say no! Oh my god.”

 

“I'm not sure. Maybe your mom can adopt him.” Matt offered.

 

“Oh my god. She would.” Shiro said, slightly in awe as he stared at the ground.

 

“Shiro. Shiro, oh my god, are you going to have a brother?” Allura asked excitedly.

 

“I...don’t know but I’m gonna call my mom right now.” Shiro said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

 

“Wait. Pump your brakes.” Matt said. “Does Keith even want to be adopted?”

 

“Well, it’d mostly be a symbolic thing, right? Keith is already an adult, technically. And I do say that with great disdain because people most certainly do not become adults in the one year between seventeen and eighteen. As far as I'm concerned, eighteen year olds are walking around with adulthood learner’s permits. Meaning that they shouldn’t be able to operate after 9 pm and they need a real adult to show them the ropes before they can call themselves adults.” Allura said.

 

“Can we save your maturity rant for like...half an hour from now? You make great points and I’d love to hear them but Shiro might be getting a little brother.” Matt said. Shiro was calling his mom.

 

“Hey, Mom? It’s Takashi- What? Yes, I’ve eaten. Yes. No? Why would I do that? No I'm okay. I wanted to call just to talk. Oh, come on. I don’t do it that infrequently. .Hey! No, wait. Okay, there was a reason I called.” Allura and Matt were pressed to the phone, way too close to Shiro but too driven by their love for drama to care. Matt fought a laugh as Shiro’s mom went “I knew it!” into the phone.

 

“So we were thinking...You see Keith as a son, right?”

 

“Yes.” she answered. Shiro put her on speaker and moved the phone away from his ear. Matt was a mouth breather and it was making him uncomfortable.

 

“Have you ever considered...adopting him?”

 

“Oh, Takashi. I...what about his parents? The ones who had him before?”

 

“Hardly parents. They were a temporary home. I don’t even know if they were listed as guardians. Keith didn’t exactly go to a reputable foster home. They didn’t...always do things right over there. Plus I bet if you asked them, they wouldn’t care if you took him. He hasn’t spoken to them since his eighteenth birthday. Want me to pick up the papers? He’s not a baby, you wouldn’t even have to provide for him and- ”

 

“I'll bring it up to your father, but yes. Just in case. I never even considered...He’s an adult. I didn’t think we could. That’s possible?”

 

“Yeah. It’d mostly be...a symbolic thing but we could do it. We could become Keith’s family, Mom. His real, legal family.”

 

“I'm tearing up.”

 

“Aw, Mom.”

 

“I’ll talk to your father about it tonight. If he loves Keith as much as I think he does, there might be a very real possibility that we can do this. Takashi, can you imagine?”

 

“No. I never thought that’d be possible.”

 

“I’ll call you with the answer tomorrow. If I don’t call maybe we still haven’t decided. Your father needs time to decide. I love you.”

 

“I love you too, Mom.” Shiro said, and the line went dead. Matt and Allura pulled him into a hug and he tried not to cry, but tears welled up in his eyes despite his best efforts and they smiled as they wiped them off his cheeks for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!! i'm sorry these updates are so infrequent. this was originally going to be one big long chapter, but i've decided to post this part of it and finish the other one separately. i decided it had been so long in between updates that i should post something to reassure everyone that i haven't forgotten about this fic! if i ever abandoned it, i would publicly announce it, and i have no intention to do that. anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter!! my tumblr is platonicsheith if u ever wanna talk abt the fic or anything! cheers


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been Forever since the last update, and I had a lot of this written already, so I decided to finish it up real quick and try to post it tonight. I apologize for the delay. I'm not sure when I can update this next but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Thank you all so much for the positive feedback!

Like clockwork, Keith found himself becoming slightly overwhelmed despite the way he was enjoying himself. He planned an escape route, as he was quite good this by now, after years of avoiding social interaction, and managed to sneak outside for some fresh air. It was chilly but the fresh air felt pleasant on his skin, and awoke his senses. It was not cold enough to be jarring, and so Keith relished in it. 

 

“The sky looks really pretty.” He heard someone say suddenly, as he gasped and turned to see who it was. Lance, smiling, sat down beside him.

 

“Mm, yeah.” Keith replied. He hadn’t expected Lance to come out and find him, and he couldn’t yet tell if he was happy or not that he did. He had wanted some solitude, just briefly, so he could keep himself from getting too worked up. Yet he felt calm, which surprised him. Calm enough to make him forget someone was sitting so close to him.

 

“I don’t know, though,” Lance began, sounding cheeky. “I can think of a few things that are prettier.” As if he had forgotten Keith could hear him, he startled when Keith turned to look at him.

 

“Like what?” Keith asked.

 

“Like an A on a math test you studied really hard for, or my mom’s smile...” And then very quietly, he finished the sentence. “You.”

 

“‘You’ as in like...me? Like the me right here?”

 

“Yeah.” A deep breath. “Yeah, you.”

 

“Oh. Well, thank you. I don’t get that often from people who aren’t Mrs. Shirogane.” Lance laughed, some of the tension in his shoulders dissipating. Keith wasn’t quite sure what had caused him to look so stressed in the first place, but he thought it wasn’t a look that suited him. People like Lance should always have a smile on their face, he thought, or else something was quite wrong with the world.

 

“She seems like a sweet lady.” Lance said.

 

“She’s like my mom. Sometimes I don’t even care that I don’t have one because I have her.”

 

“You don’t have a mom?” He asked it as nonchalantly as he could, his voice soft. Inside a million thoughts flew through his head, but he tried to play it cool, to sound neutral. Sometimes when people asked Keith this question, it felt like a punch, like cold water splashed on his face. But this time it felt like a gentle knock on a door, hoping for a response.

 

“Nope,” He said dismissively. “Don’t really know the circumstances myself but...I'm here now, right? Somehow I'm here.”

 

“That’s right,” Lance said, expression brighter. “You’re here, and you have us now. It’s funny...I always loved shows and movies like that.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“A bunch of people, unlikely friends, coming together. I was just always drawn to that dynamic. I have it now.”

 

“It feels nice,” Keith agreed. “I always think of us as friends in my head but hearing someone else say it is so much better. Sometimes I- I know this is pathetic, but i think I'm hoping for a little too much.”

 

“Not pathetic at all.” Lance said, certainty in his tone that Keith had not expected. “It’s not like people have these huge signs on their chest saying exactly how they feel. It’s tricky. Trust is a gamble. We do our best not to get hurt but...you know your best isn’t always good enough.” He looked far away suddenly, his mind occupied. Keith nudged him.

 

“You thinking about something specific?”

 

“No,” He said, dismissive, unlike himself.

 

“Sure seems like it.” A beat. “Something happen?”

 

“Yeah.” he said, breathlessly. He nodded quickly. “Chau happened. I came over to make things right between us. We had a bit of a fight that day I brought you food. and he’s- he’s not a nice person, Chau isn’t. I didn’t realize. I don’t know how I didn’t. it seems so obvious now, but anyways...He was mad about me texting other guys. Not even flirting, just texting at all, and then I found out he cheated on me. I don’t know when, but the fact that it happened at all...and the thing is I don’t even like him anymore, so I shouldn’t care, but the fact that he was willing to hurt me, that he  _ did  _ hurt me, well. That’s just a little harder to stomach, and I'm rambling. And I'm sorry.”

 

“It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. You know, I should’ve said something. I feel partially responsible.” Lance remembered how Keith’s name had come up, if he somehow knew about it. 

 

“Shiro told me he was suspicious of Chau. Apparently he and Allura don’t get along well, and I'll tell you right now, that is not because of Allura. I should’ve said something. I just didn’t want to make you upset. It seemed so presumptuous. and now you’re hurt. I should’ve been a better friend. I'm sorry, Lance.” The new information knocked back and forth in his head. So there had been signs. So people had picked up on it. and yet he hadn’t. He had always thought of himself as someone who was good at reading others, but he must have been mistaken. He felt like a fool. and now Keith felt responsible for something he wasn’t even involved in.

 

“I guess the truth is it’s neither of our faults. But you’re sweet, Keith. you’re really sweet.” Keith couldn’t help it; he smiled.

 

“Wanna get back to the sleepover now?” Keith suggested. Nyma is gonna take all the pillows and we’ll have to sleep on just the mattress. She’s got a glint in her eye. I think she’s a pickpocket.”

 

“Oh,” Lance laughed. “I  _ know  _ she’s a pickpocket. But like, a harmless one. She steals things you don’t need. She knows how to do that thing with the bobby pin where you unlock the door. I tried to do that once when I got locked out and guess what I got. A fucked up bobby pin with all the paint scratched off. Looked like a paper clip that got run over by a truck. There were no winners that day.” He sighed. Keith laughed.

 

“Well,” He nudged Lance. “Did anyone ever let you in?”

 

“ _ No,”  _ He replied, sounding bitter. “But my brother Guillermo is irresponsible as shit and he always leaves his bedroom window open. It’s like he  _ wants  _ to get bitten by mosquitos. So I climbed the side of my house with a ladder that was there for some reason...I think my dad tried to fix our roof at some point and gave up - truly a McClain thing to do - and let myself in. I also almost got stuck in the window. Please don’t try this at home.”

 

“But that’s where you tried it, asshole.” Keith laughed.

 

“I know. that’s why I'm telling you not to try it. It sucks.”

 

“Lance?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I think Shay is vaping in your room. I also think your mom would kick our asses if she knew that. Let’s hurry back.”

 

“I thought Shay had asthma.”

 

“Don’t ask me.”

 

“Oh. I hear coughing. She  _ does _ have asthma.”

 

When they walked into the room, they saw Shay having a terrible coughing fit while Hunk patted her back sympathetically. Nyma cackled into a pillow to muffle the sound and Shay glared at her.

 

“Fuck you, Nyma.”

 

“Right back atcha, baby lungs. I told you not to breathe in like that.”

 

“I told you she has asthma.” Lance said to Keith.

 

“We’ve established that.”

 

“Oh, hey guys.” Hunk said sheepishly. “Sorry. Nyma was...insistent.”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Lance waved his hand. “Just cut it out so my mom doesn’t kick you guys out.” Hunk gasped.

 

“Your mom would kick  _ me  _ out? We baked together, dude. We have a sacred bond.”

 

“Well maybe not over a vape, but that’s as much as you can get away with. She has an incredibly good nose. One time I ate salsa with cilantro in it and you know how that is. The smell of cilantro seeps into everything. I washed that shirt twice and then wore it to our house and she hugged me. I’m chilling, enjoying the hug, and then all of a sudden she pulled back and asked me if I just had salsa. That shirt didn’t smell like cilantro anymore, man. Just the fresh clean scent of Gain,” He paused, and then suddenly horrified he said: “I think she can smell my thoughts. I really, really hope I'm wrong about that.”

 

“I hope Shiro doesn’t see my Google searches.” Keith said suddenly. “There’s nothing sexual in there. I just clicked on SafarI and I have three tabs open; all Google searches.” He held his phone, reading the searches out loud. “The first one says “Why do I feel so alone?” I don’t even remember searching that. The second one says “How many pretzels can a human fit in their mouth?”. and the last one is “Zak Bagans’ wife”. He’s not married by the way. That’s important to me.”

 

“Zak Bagans is old enough to be your dad.”

 

“A fact I am painfully aware of…”

 

“Keith.”

 

“Look. If Zak Bagans actually asked me out I’d call the fucking police. That’s over a 20 year age gap, but let a man dream.”

 

“Fair enough...But if he ever hits you up I'll fight him myself.”

 

“Don’t think you’d win, but the sentiment is appreciated.” Keith said, laughing, but got hit in the head unexpectedly by a rather large pillow, thrown by Hunk with no prior warning. Lance narrowed his eyes.

  
“A pillow fight? You want to have a pillow fight?” Lance asked. He smirked. “It’s  _ on,” _

**Author's Note:**

> as an autistic girl who loves the autistic keith headcanon, i figured i'd write something with it :)


End file.
